


The Executioner

by Go_get_Jakes_gun



Series: Long, LONG ago... [1]
Category: Norse Religion & Lore, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Blood, Child Abuse, Drag, Dream Rape, Enemies to Lovers, Executioner Thor, Female Loki (Marvel), Forced Marriage, Gladiator Thor (Marvel), Graphic Description, IMPORTANT TO MENTION THAT EVEN THOUGH THERE IS ATTEMPTED RAPE, Incest, Intersex Jotunn (Marvel), Intersex Loki, It's immoral to leave Loki in his initial state, It's up to Thor to fix that, Jotunn Loki (Marvel), Laufey's A+ Parenting (Marvel), Laufey's a Bastard, Like lowkey emo Thor, Loki's a blushing virgin, M/M, Moody Thor, Odin (Marvel)'s A+ Parenting, SOOOO cliche, Spoiled brat Loki, THERE IS NO ACTUAL RAPE, TO ANYBODY WHO HAS EVER COMPLAINED ABOUT MY SHORT CHAPTERS- THIS ONE'S FOR YOU!, Thrymskvida, Violence, You've been warned, clueless Loki, gross old men, no literally, not graphic though, tbf it was give Thor up or condemn his people to die
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-05
Updated: 2020-12-05
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:54:35
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 51,806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27904021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Go_get_Jakes_gun/pseuds/Go_get_Jakes_gun
Summary: Upon hearing his name, the boy in the cell looked up, a murderous expression upon his tear-soaked face. He had blond hair and startlingly blue eyes. He was hideous! Loki pulled a face. Oh well, he’d come all this way.“Hello there.” He said very slowly, in the hopes that the creature in the cell might be able to understand him somewhat.The boy, scowl and all, said in a definitive voice. “I’m going to kill you!” And then roared and lunged at Loki from the cell. Loki jumped back, his heart racing.“Thank you.” He said to the guards, before marching back up castle-side. He had no intentions whatsoever of ever meeting that rude boy again.Laufey wins and raises Thor as his Executioner. Laufey gets ready to take on the Nine, damn his runt-son for getting in the way of his plans, as per usual.
Relationships: Balder/Karnilla, Farbauti/Laufey (Marvel), Frigga | Freyja/Odin (Marvel), Jarnsaxa/Thor (Marvel), Loki (Marvel)/Original Male Character(s), Loki/Thor (Marvel), Thor (Marvel)/Original Male Character(s)
Series: Long, LONG ago... [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2052066
Comments: 43
Kudos: 65





	The Executioner

**Author's Note:**

> JUSTICE FOR JOHNNY DEPP!
> 
> There, I said it. I literally do not care if nobody ever reads anything I write ever again, I just cannot stand the media trashing him despite the fact that a) he lost a LIBEL case from a CIVIL trial and b) the Judge in the case's son worked for the party being sued (NGN). It really bothers me how all of these MSM outlets are artistically displaying facts in ways which are true but leave out all relevant context (p. sure a history teacher three years ago told me that that's what qualifies as propaganda). Used to trust the MSM blindly, glad I've had a wakeup call!
> 
> Off topic, anyways, on with the fic:
> 
> OOOH! ALSO: THERE'S NO *ACTUAL* RAPE IN THIS FIC, JUST ATTEMPTED RAPE! DON'T WORRY!  
> Apologies if some bits don't make sense: my pages app doesn't seem to copy-through the strikethroughs I insert (likely because I use a custom shortcut to do them) so I redo them manually, but I may have missed one or two!

When Laufey's war against Odin had been won, Loki did not find out from the trumpets or the parades or even the giant feast that was held in his father’s honour. As a runt, Loki wasn’t privy to such things.

He found out from his gossiping older brothers. Loki himself was only about 40, the Midgardian equivalent of about 5, and to be quite honest he was still pretty upset with Byleistr, who was 200, the Midgardian equivalent of about eight, for pushing him down when they were playing outside earlier.

Their older brother, Helblindi, was nearing 400, the Midgardian equivalent of about 12, and was already heavily involved in court life. Which was probably why it was _Helblindi_ who had leaked the news first.

“Did you hear about the hostage we took?” Helblindi whispered. “I heard that he can shoot lightning from his hands.”

“I heard that he can fell a beast fifteen times his size!”

Loki listened with rapt attention as his brothers kept talking about this mysterious Asgardian caught in his father’s dungeons. Loki made up his mind to go and see the man in question, later that night, when everyone else was at the feast.

And do that he did. Nobody cared much that Laufey’s third son, the **_runt_** , was wandering the halls late at night, alone. Nobody cared much that he was headed to the dungeon, not when Loki had a reputation for being a weirdo. One guard raised an eyebrow at the sight of the 40-year-old practically having to drop himself down each step, but he was mostly concerned about what kind of mischief the kid was getting ready to cause. The guard drew his spear, just in case.

Loki trotted through the corridors near-silent, the only sounds were of his panted breaths. Walking around in a palace meant for creatures almost twice your height would be exhausting to anyone, let alone a five-year-old. Loki walked on and on and on and eventually the creatures in the dungeon started looking a bit weirder. Paler skin, beiger, less blue. These must be the Asgardians then.

“Hi! Excuse me!” Loki said to one of the prison guards. “Can you please tell me where the Asgardian is?”

“Which one?” The Jotunn grunted.

“The one with the lightning.” 

“Second cell to the left.”

“Thank you!”

Loki continued on walking towards the cell in question and paused outside of it. It was heavily padded, and outside of it stood two guards. This was clearly a high-level security cell…

With a boy only a little older than him (maybe about Byleistr’s age), and not much bigger than him, sitting inside of it. Well, this was a let down. “Hi! Excuse me, can you please tell me where the Lightning Man is?” He asked one of the guards. 

The guard in question stared down at Loki in revulsion before saying. “This **_is_** the ‘Lightning Man’” Loki ignored the other guard’s snickering. “Prince Thor of Asgard.”

Upon hearing his name, the boy in the cell looked up, a murderous expression upon his tear-soaked face. He had blond hair and startlingly blue eyes. He was **_hideous_**! Loki pulled a face. Oh well, he’d come all this way. 

“Hello there.” He said _very slowly_ , in the hopes that the creature in the cell might be able to understand him somewhat.

The boy, scowl and all, said in a definitive voice. “I’m going to kill you!” And then roared and lunged at Loki from the cell. Loki jumped back, his heart racing.

“Thank you.” He said to the guards, before marching back up castle-side. He had no intentions whatsoever of ever meeting that rude boy again.

.

_1000 Years Later_

Loki awaited his brother, Helblindi, outside of the courtroom. He was having a discussion with their father, Laufey. One day Helblindi was going to take over as King, and therefore needed this one-on-one time with their father. Loki understood this, of course, but it was damn annoying waiting, and if Helblindi didn’t come out soon, he’d be sending a giant snake in there to retrieve his brother for him.

He noticed a servant pass by and glare at him, as though he could tell what Loki was sensing. How insolent! Loki ought to teach whoever-his-name-was a lesson about fucking respect! The doors opened and Helblindi stepped out, as though he could sense whatever disaster his youngest brother was about to cause.

“Oh good, you’re here. Let’s go.” Helblindi smiled at Loki. Helblindi and Byleistr were the only two people in the entire castle that ever smiled at him without mockery.

They were going to the Lazy River with Byleistr and some of the two elder princes’ friends. Loki was looking forwards to spending time with his brothers, their friends not so much. He didn't need another eight hours of Ragnar’s **_fascinating_** commentary about Loki’s ‘womens’ craft’ or eight hours of bloody Horus trying to make his move on him to satisfy whatever runt-kink he had. It was disgusting, honestly, it was, but Helblindi and Byleistr never seemed to notice, which made it all the more _infuriating_.

They walked past the training grounds, and Loki’s eyes involuntarily drifted over to the men training in there. He frowned as he spotted a flash of blond. “‘Blindi, what’s an Asgardian doing in there?”

“Oh, that’s Thor! He’s in training.”

“For _what_?” Loki asked in disbelief. The last he’d seen the boy had been a hundred years ago, when his father threw him into the dungeons for a week for burning off a guard’s eyebrows. Loki was willing to believe that his father might have let it go had it not been for Loki’s use of seidr in the instance. They’d been cellmates opposite each other. Thor had been moody the whole time and had stared at him a few times as though he’d wanted to kill him. His only words to Loki had been to ‘shut up’ when Loki had tried to goad him into conversation.

Rude.

“Well, father can’t just leave him sitting around, now can he? The exchange was Asgard’s greatest weapon in return for our acceptance of their surrender.”

“For. **_What?”_** Oh how Loki hated it when his brother rambled on endlessly.

“Oh, father’s using him to execute our prisoners now. Trial by combat.”

“But we already **_have_** an executioner, Sir Bylgja.”

“Who is retiring.”

“He’s only 5000004!”

“ ** _Involuntarily_** … that’s what father and I were just discussing. There’s going to be a duel to the death between the pair.”

“You surely don’t think that’s fair.”

“Loki, this is Jotunheimr, nothing is fair.” Helblindi ruffled his little brother’s hair. “You’re almost an adult now, just 160 more years to go. You should know this.” It was true, in just the blink of an eye Loki would be considered an adult in Jotunn society. Prior to the most recent Aesir-Jotnar war, Jotnar died out quite young, coupled with the **_generally_** hard living conditions that the terrain brought, it was no surprise that their coming-of-age age was 400 years lower than Vanaheim’s and **_800_** years lower than Asgard’s.

Well, what was left of Asgard.

Other than being of marrying age though, there wasn’t really all that much that Loki couldn’t already do. He could move out, he supposed, without court permission. He could work aa full-time job… as previously stated, nothing was going to change for him.

“Anything _else_ that you and father were discussing?” Loki teased his brother as they continued walking to the Lazy River.

“No.” Helblindi said that one oddly quickly. Hmm, that seemed important. Loki’d ask his brother more about it later. Byleistr, Ragnar, Horus and Atla all came into sight. Oh no, **_Atla_**? **_He_** was here? Urgh, he was _so annoying_! He was _literally_ the worst.

Already, from a good twenty metres away, Loki could see that Atla was picking an argument with Ragnar. It could be worse, Ulfrun could also be here. Nothing worse than a pair of bickering Frost Bitches.

“Loki!” Horus called, his voice brimming with the promise of a day full of sexual ‘jokes’.

Loki nodded in his direction, unwilling to satisfy the man’s request to hear Loki ‘say [his] name’ which had been a joke he’d made two hangouts ago. Honestly, Frost Studs could be such pigs.

You went down the lazy river on slabs of ice. Jotnar were blessed with the gift of ice, which they inherited from the Casket of Ancient Winters, or so the stories went. Once everyone had crafted their makeshift boats, they were off. Well, that was a bit misleading, after all, it **_was_** the Lazy River.

At first Loki lounged cozily on his slab, spreading himself out spread-eagled, enjoying what little sun one could get on Jotunheimr… then he noticed Horus staring at him and, blushing, he quickly closed his legs and sat up, pretending not to notice Horus quickly turning away from him. Of course. The man was going to be a creep, but it would not do him well for Helblindi or Byleistr to realise that he was checking out their brother. So fucking typical. Loki thought back to another of the two’s friends, Herma, who had **_thankfully_** been called back to his father’s estate the previous decade to marry some poor, unfortunate soul.

Loki’s mind eventually went from machine-hot to summertime-cold, and he allowed himself to truly and properly relax. He of course knew not what his father had in store for him. Laufey was no great fan of his youngest, that much was known to all. Had he been home at the time of Loki’s birth, he likely would have abandoned him in a temple to die, before any Jotnar were alerted to Loki’s existence, but alas he had come home too late to do such.

He could never kill Loki outright. It was a crime, in Jotunheimr, to waste Ymir’s blood. Laufey could technically work around this, of course, by taking Loki somewhere like Musspelheim and killing him there, but he didn’t for whatever reason. Loki had tried guessing at his father’s game for many centuries, and he had two main theories: 1) His father was trying to marry him off, 2) his father intended to use him as a human sacrifice.

To clarify, it would not be a ‘waste’ of Ymir’s blood for Loki to be sacrificed, in the same way that it was not a ‘waste’ of Ymir’s blood to fight and/or die in respectable combat. It’s not like the blood was going to be discarded, it would have a use. The reason that Loki even suspected such a thing was that the Casket was fuelled by the blood of Sorcerers. Everybody knew this, just as everybody knew that Loki was a seidrmadr. Given that he was also of Ymir, his blood would be doubly valuable to the strengthening of the Casket.

However, Loki liked to assume that he was overreacting and that, yes, his father was most likely just going to sell him off in marriage. Which was **_much_** worse. As a runt, yes, Loki could **_technically_** take the cock of a normal-sized Jotunn, but it would take a lot of accommodating on his part, not to mention that it would likely hurt like hell, and that if the child didn’t inherit Loki’s runt gene (scientists were starting to come to the conclusion that it was most likely a recessive gene for runt that caused dwarfism amongst Jotnar) Loki would _probably_ die. Loki didn’t even dare entertain for longer than a second that Laufey might marry him off to someone his size, someone from outside of Jotunheimr. No, everyone knew Laufey wanted to conquer the Nine by force, not by marriage. It would probably be a marriage to one of Laufey’s right hand men, or one of Laufey’s more powerful lords. This possibility even explained why Loki’d been invited to the last two feasts, Laufey was trying to show him off.

Oh, there was that heat back again. Loki readjusted himself. Ahh, much better.

.

Loki slipped on his green shendyt with all of is little golden embellishments. It was another execution… Loki wondered when they were switching executioners now. He remembered Helblindi mentioning that the Asgardian was going to be carrying them out sometime soon, he wondered if today was to be the day of the battle. 

Loki slipped on some jewellery. Today was an appearance. At his father’s side. Even though anybody with half a brain would realise Laufey’s disdain for Loki, that did not erase Loki’s duty as a Prince of the Realm. Loki checked himself in the mirror. Fabulous, breathtaking. Not that anybody really **_cared_** , they cared more for his show of wealth, for the reminder that he, like the rest of his family, were superior to the common folk of Jotunheimr, to remind everyone that wealth was coming their way too. Everybody knew that what the rich had first the poor would have eventually.

Loki slipped into his sandals and walked out to the stadium. Executions on Jotunheimr were **_fair_**! By allowing one to fight for their life, to die in combat, they were not robbing them their chance of going to either Valhalla or Fólkvangr. Heck, if they could prove their strength (what Jotunheimr valued above all else) they were even let go! Regardless of the crime that they had committed! But to do that, they’d not only have to fight every other contestant, they’d have to fight the **_Executioner_**. It was by far the most humane system of execution across the Nine.

Not to mention that the audience loved it. The Jotnar were, by nature, rather bloodthirsty people. There was nothing more satisfying than watching a child-rapist’s head be lopped off. **_Nothing_**. Loki himself thought that these displays of strength were quite vulgar and barbaric, and tended to prefer not watching them. However his father had **_insisted_** that he be present today, and one did not disobey a request from King Laufey himself.

He walked past his mother and brothers. Their father wasn’t here yet, so nobody in the entire colosseum could sit. ‘Of course’ Loki thought bitterly to himself, as he waited on his feet,‘Of course this is all a power show, coming last, coming late. Does he care about anyone else? About the mothers who have come here with their young children? What about the **_pregnant_** mothers, huh?’ Laufey strode in. He wordlessly took his seat and at once everybody collapsed into their chairs as though they’d been waiting all day to do so, which some of them probably had been.

“Begin!” Laufey’s loud voice boomed. Immediately, from Loki’s seat on the bench beside everyone in his family other than Laufey, one could see that people were rushing about lifting doors and moving mechanisms. Loki noticed that quite a few of them were Asgardian. Of course, slaves were cheap labour.

Out came a Frost Giant who looked to be about 37000. That was young. That was like 20 on Midgard or something. He stood out, shakily, with a sword in his hands. On his shendyt were inscribed the words ‘rapist’. ‘ _Oh me oh my,’_ Loki thought, teeming with nervous anticipation. Rape against your own kind was wrong, undeniably, but sometimes Loki wondered if the sentencing was a bit harsh for such a crime. Serial rapist? Sure! But that was a different crime, and Loki knew it because he’d seen it written on others’ shendyts. From a different door came two, much older men. Loki clucked his tongue. It was an unfortunate technicality in their laws that if you committed the crime with someone else, you were sentenced together and therefore could fight together.

Both sets of Jotnar grew to their full height, their fighting height. 40 feet for the man alone and 38 and 39 respectively for the other two. A bell sounded off. The match had begun.

Like it was even a fair match to begin with. The other two had been sentenced to the colosseum for **_murder_**! The rapist was dead within a few minutes of fighting, the shorter murderer got his spear through his shoulder and the taller murderer seized the opportunity to saw the rapist in half with his axe.

Now it would be the two murderers against the next criminal.

A new man was let out. _Filicide_ , his shendyt read. Loki wondered if half the people in the colosseum even knew that that was the murder of one’s child. No, of course not, they were just here to watch heads get lopped off, no questions asked.

Once more, unsurprisingly, the two fighters beat the solo fighter. This was starting to seem rigged.

There was one more fight featuring the two murderers as they viciously killed a sex trafficker, before they were ushered offstage to the sound of many boos from the audience. Loki was having a hard time focusing much on the games, queasy as he was about the amount of bloods and guts lining the sandy floor of the colosseum. He had no doubt that his father knew how he felt about this and he felt embarrassed.

No sense asking his despondent mother. There were rumours that whatever curse had caused him to bear Loki had caused him to lose his mind as well. That upon delivering Loki he’d screamed so hard at the sight of what he’d given birth to that he’d never be able to speak again. Loki was sure that these were all rumours made to torment Loki and garner favour with Laufey, but it made his heart race to think about them nonetheless.

Whatever the truth of it was, Farbauti had been under the care of Laufey and Farbauti’s nephew, Jarnsaxa, ever since. Loki thought Jarnsaxa was a douchebag. Jarnsaxa liked to prove him right on that. A lot. Jarnsaxa was seated next to Farbauti, but out of sight, to protect Farbauti’s image in the eyes of those who were not attuned to court life. They needed to present a strong front, all of them. No doubt Jarnsaxa was smirking over the fact that Loki was likely to _drown_ in his own vomit from the way he’d been holding it all in.

Loki noticed a flash of blond hair. This **_was_** the Asgardian’s fight then. Interesting. While Loki might not be especially keen on watching the blood of his fellow Jotnar be spilled, it would be fun to watch the puny Asgardian get pummelled. What, was this his father’s plan then? He couldn’t just kill Thor for fun, because all the other realms would gang up on him, but he could put on this show, make it look as though Thor was getting a fair chance at a promotion to quite a nice life, and have him get killed in the process? Clever, Laufey, clever. Loki wondered if the Aesir bled red.

In Thor’s hand was an axe Loki did not recognise. It must have been specially crafted. Oh, his father was so good at this, give the Aesir _no reason_ to criticise Laufey for his decisions. Sir Bylgja stepped in. The crowd cheered for him, it was clear that they too, like Loki, wished to see the revered Executioner put an end to this puny Asgardian’s life.

Loki sat back and got ready to watch Sir Bylgja pummel the little Asgardian, but the moment that the bell sounded, things took a very different turn. Turned out the little Asgardian could fly. Or, at the least, his axe could, and it could carry Thor with it. Thor gave a cry and swung his axe at Sir Bylgja’s four-foot head. Sir Bylgja deflected the blow with his spear.

But Thor had brought lightning down with him, and it travelled through Sir Bylgja’s spear, electrocuting the man. Gasping, Sir Bylgja dropped the spear. Thor used the opportunity to slice the man into literal ribbons. Loki had to turn away and puke. Byleistr would have pet him on the back, he knew, but one quick glance from Laufey and any chance of that was shut down. When Loki dared to look back up, he was greeted to quite a gory sight. Sir Bylgja’s head had been cut open, his brain sinking into the snow, all grey and gross. His innards had all been scattered everywhere, as though Thor had run through him with his axe swinging like a propeller. Thor was covered with blood. Loki was back down vomiting, he hadn’t even had breakfast that morning, how was it possible that he could throw up so much on an empty stomach?

Laufey stood up as everyone booed Thor, who stood victorious with his arms raised. “Everybody! I present Jotunheimr’s newest Executioner, Thor Odinson!” The boos died down as people realised that this fight had gone the way that Laufey-King wanted. They awaited the wise words of their leader. “Tonight, there will be a feast in his honour!” The people cheered that. Of course they did, even though the great majority of them would not be in attendance. A feast was good for everyone, good for the economy, a large sum of money left the castle and entered circulation, soon **_everyone_** would be eating better.

On his way out Laufey gave Loki a glare, scolded him, slapped him across the face, and told him that he was to come to every single one of these events until he could handle death like a real Jotunn.

.

After being scrubbed down by servants (which was always a bit harsh given that they were all bigger than him, even in their miniature form), Loki was dressed in his white, silk shendyt, the one with the green emeralds to the feast. His bald headhad a gold chain covering it, and he wore numerous necklaces and bracelets and his shoes were golden. He looked **_stunning_**. A servant dabbed onto him some floral fragrance from Vanaheim, and applied some makeup to his face. A bit of eyeliner and mascara, some pearl powder to make him shine, and something to make his lips a bit darker with a slightly redder tint.

He looked at himself in the mirror. He looked stunning. Just like how his father would want him to in order to sell him off to the highest bidder. That was fine, the joke was on Laufey, Loki didn’t want to be here anyways. In fact, one day, he was going to escape Jotunheimr altogether, so sending him off would really only help him achieve his life’s ambition.

Loki was led out and thrust into the party room. It was a giant room fit for, well, giants. When in battle-size (something that non-runts could manage) the room held five hundred men. When in civilian size (10ft for most Jotnar, 6ft for Loki) the room could, naturally, hold many more.

Loki walked around awkwardly, with nobody to introduce him and nobody his size to converse with. He took out like a sore thumb, and was likewise avoided.

“Ooof!” Loki grunted, as he bumped into someone right in front of him. Loki clutched his head, scrunching up his nose. “Watch where you’re going!” Damn right or wrong, Loki was a Prince of this Realm, he _always_ had the right of way.

“Maybe if you could look right in front of you, you would have known not to keep walking!” A semi-familiar voice sounded. Loki looked and there, of course, was Thor.

“ _Thor_ ,” Loki drawled, inspecting the man up and down. Thor was his height, maybe just **_slightly_** taller. He had the long, scraggly hair that one would come to expect from a barbarian. He was dressed not in a shendyt, but in a roman skirt, like most warriors would be. He was very muscular, Loki noted, for somebody who had been locked in a cell for a thousand years. Oh, and there was the little fact that his wrists were in cuffs (likely seidr-inhibiting), probably for the best. “My father’s latest Executioner. Tell me, **_Thor_** , was it fun killing an innocent man today?” Loki leaned in provocatively. He wanted to **_watch_** the barbarian’s reaction to his question, he deserved a little fun today.

“It was **_joyous._** Was it fun throwing up?” Came back Thor’s snide reply. Why, that cheeky bastard!

“Charming, really… you know, I don’t quite know what my father sees in you. Sir Bylgja was a distinguished warrior who had killed slews of Aesir in the Aesir-Jotnar war. He got all the big ones, like Tyr and Olaf and Elena… he didn’t deserve to die like this. Didn’t deserve to have his lands taken and given to an _Asgardian_ of all people while his wife and young son have been cast out with nowhere to go… it’s sad, really. To have your life ripped from you by someone who is only barely a man.” Loki regarded Thor’s bored expression with a mild sense of fury.

“Are you done with your monologue yet?”

“How dare you speak to me in such a- **_hey_**!” He called after Thor, whose back had turned as the man walked elsewhere. “Hey! You get back here! I _command you_!” And then Thor **_did_** turn back, but he had a murderous expression upon his face. The inner Loki wanted to scramble and run away, the outer Loki stood his ground, unwilling to face the cost of embarrassing his father in public in such a fashion.

“You listen to me, and you listen good! I do not want to talk to you- to **_any_** of you and your kind. I do not want to be here! One day, and that day will be soon, I will break out of these chains and I will _kill you_ , Loki son of Laufey, is that understood? Good! Now save yourself some embarrassment and go find somebody else’s cock to suck!”

Wait a second- **_what_**!? First of all, why the singled out attack, and secondly, what made Thor even think that Loki was **_remotely_** interested in him and all his Aesir-ness!? Loki shook his head, a frown crossing his face. His brothers were right, the Aesir were a mentally handicapped race of primitive beings.

Loki turned back and marched into the party and… oh look, Jarnsaxa had just witnessed everything that had transpired. No doubt he was going to gossip about it to his gaggle of friends. _Airheads_ , the lot of them.

Later into the feast, Laufey blessed Thor’s axe as the official Executioner’s Blade and gave him his properties: land in the north, and a wing in the castle, where Thor was to stay to prevent his escape. Loki failed to see how it was fair that if Thor were forced to stay here _anyways_ , then a Jotunn citizen should be forcibly ousted from what should have still been his father’s land. It was a disgrace to justice is what it was, and Loki happily vented about it to a drunk Byleistr who kept falling asleep randomly.

Loki had a feeling that he was going to be seeing the son of Odin a lot more often. After all, when was Loki ever one to not pry?

.

_139 Years Later_

Loki settled down to breakfast with his father and brothers at the dining table for breakfast. The door opened and in walked Farbauti with Jarnsaxa by her side. Then the door opened once more and in stepped Thor.

At first Thor had only dined with them whenever there was an execution, but Laufey had grown fond of Jotunheimr’s latest superstar. In the past 139 years the scene of the colosseum fights had changed quite a bit, in no small part thanks to one Sir Thor Odinson.

Thor’s prowess on the battlefield was extraordinary, inspirational even. He brought a whole new element to these fights! For the first time **_ever_** fights were being held for the fun of it! Not that it was much of a loss when people **_did_** die, the Jotunn fertility rate had been surprisingly high for the past 1139 years, the average Jotunn was having seven children now as opposed to three. Laufey was planning to start his attack on the Nine Realms soon, and Loki had no doubt in his mind that Thor was at the centre of it all.

And so, with that, about a decade ago Thor had stated to eat breakfast with them. 

Every encounter with Thor had been awkward and hostile. Loki hadn’t taken kindly to Thor’s death threat, and Thor, the smug bastard, hadn’t relented all too much either. Whenever he locked eyes with Loki at the dinner table he'd make a quick gesture with his knife across his neck. Loki, in turn, would taunt Thor about his latest killing whenever he saw him, would ask Thor if he thought his father (Odin) was proud of what his son was doing. It drove him wild.

Another trend that started with Thor’s popularity was that people were starting to grow their hair out. Loki did not grow his hair out because of the trend, regardless of what people thought, but rather because he’d delved into new magics, some of which had the potential to be rather dangerous. Having hair was an easy way to tell when the magic was about to kill you. See, when you over-exerted yourself your hair would go white, when all your hair was white you were either dead or near death, when you were healed your hair would go back to normal. The key was to not let it get to your roots.

Jarnsaxa was, as per the norm, not-so-subtly trying to attract Thor’s attention. He ate his cereal suggestively and took his sausage down in one gulp. Try hard. Loki conservatively ate his watermelon and then went for the scrambled eggs which Helblindi so kindly passed to him under the scrutiny of their father.

Byleistr, on the other hand, had the air of someone who’d had a rather delightful end to the night. Loki had wished that Byleistr would invite whoever his latest paramour was to breakfast just _one time_! It might motivate Helblindi to try harder, or Laufey to consider letting his children marry for love. Alas, while it was common enough in Jotunn culture to sleep with whoever you so choose, there was a general ‘don’t ask don’t tell’ policy ascribed to it, wherein sexual liaisons were rarely if ever talked about outside of the bedroom itself.

For example, Loki _happened to know_ that Thor got a lot of tail from all the giggling that the servants around thee palace did, as well as from seeing firsthand men flocking around Thor and Laufey giving Thor the thumbs up as though Thor sought Laufey’s approval for anything other than a fake attempt to build trust between the pair so that he could have his chains removed and kill them all, Loki first. Wow, his mind was running today. Must be the weather.

Laufey expected Loki to be ready to go on his first hunt soon. To correct that phrase, Laufey expected Loki to **_lead_** his first hunt soon. It was the only thing left (except for Loki’s 1200th birthday) before Loki could be married off to… well, it was looking a lot more like Gymir. Loki **_would_** have guessed Hlora, but the man already had a wife (Vingnir) who was a respected warrior in his own right. And besides, at the recent parties, Gymir had been getting quite comfortable around Loki.

Honestly, Loki ought to just let him do it. He was still underage, and the Jotnar took those sorts of things seriously, if Gymir was caught doing improper things to someone who was still technically the Midgardian equivalent of seventeen, **_especially_** if it were a prince, he could face Trial by Executioner (that’s what the kids were calling it these days).

The frustrating thing about this whole preparing to lead a hunt thing was that Laufey, who had absolutely no faith in Loki’s competence whatsoever, had enlisted his most favoured of warriors to instruct Loki on, well, **_everything_** (gee, you try to use seidr on three separate hunting trips, you **_succeed_** in it, and yet you get called ‘useless’. Wow, that’s very telling). He wanted Loki to lead this hunt the ‘clean way’ so as not to repulse any potential candidates for Loki’s hand. Seidr all across Jotunheimr was considered to be for the weak, regardless of how powerful it could make one.

And, of course, wherever Thor went, the Stans went too. Loki followed Thor out into the training yard, and about 150 different Frost Bitches (including Jarnsaxa, because _of course_ ) came along too to fawn all over Thor as he ‘taught’ Loki how to throw an axe. (At least there were witnesses, Loki reasoned).

Thor was an absolutely shite teacher. He never corrected Loki’s stance, only ever once commented on his grip, and mainly taught Loki by throwing the axe himself and then expecting Loki to copy. His main criticism was that Loki was ‘doing it all wrong’. Now, of course, if Loki were to run to Laufey with these complaints, he wouldn’t be believed, because Thor was the absolute best fighter in all of the Nine Realms, as a few tourneys had proven, so there was no way he was in the wrong here. Loki had no way to get it across to his father that just because you were good at something did not mean that you were necessarily good at teaching it. Good teachers had eyes for improvement, were patient, rational, and, above all, inspirational. Thor was none of that. Literally. A part of Loki thought that maybe Thor had no intention of even helping Loki at all, maybe he was only doing it to give the Frost Bitches ample time to ogle him, whilst also getting onto Laufey’s good side.

Loki picked up an axe and flung it at a target. He supposed that the only help he’d be getting in this was from himself. He missed the target by a foot. Urgh. These things were hard to lift, let alone throw… though…

Loki grabbed another axe and flung it. As it sailed through the air, he made sure that his follow through crossed the path of the target over his eyes. Through his mind he manipulated the axe so that it hit the target on the spot perfectly. Too perfectly. Loki noticed that he’d seemed to attract Thor’s attention. Hah! Suck on that, you dick!

“Good throw, Loki!” Thor commented, though Loki already knew that Thor knew that he’d used seidr. Thor picked up the axe nearest to him. He threw it at the same target that Loki had, and managed to slice Loki’s axe in half, before falling to the ground where stone met stone. Thor turned and went back to his adoring fanbase, leaving behind a seething Loki.

No bother. Loki just picked up a bunch of axes and one by one hit every subsequent target. He then grabbed a shield and charged each target down. He would look like a madman to anyone with half a brain, but he was strength training, practicing fighting a potential beast, since all the ones on Jotunheimr, save some fish and insects, were undeniably stronger than the young runt. Once Loki had knocked down all of them, he picked up a sword and went at it, hacking away at the straw dummies. He could feel Thor watching him. He was probably angry. _Good_.

Once Loki had destroyed his last dummy he yawned, stretching, and turned to Thor. “Well, that’s all for me today. Thanks for the training sesh, teach!” And strode off back to the castle to take a shower, leaving behind a fuming Thor. What did Thor have to be so angry about? Not Loki’s fault he was such a fantastic student, taking his own initiative and everything.

.

Their next training session was a long day of Thor pushing Loki into the mud. No, literally, Loki would stand up, Thor would shout ‘start’ and he’d push Loki into the mud all over again. At one point Loki had enough, so he made Thor slip on a mysterious track of frozen mud that had just magically (okay, might’ve given it away) appeared in front of Thor, at which point Loki had taken great joy in pretending to push, and declaring himself the victor to all of Thor’s ardent fans, none of whom believed that Loki had won that match fairly, and all of whom had booed and hissed at Loki as though they were in the _actual_ colosseum. After that, Thor’s shoves seemed to get harder.

Loki lay in the mud, sprawled out and exhausted, his hair everywhere. This was an oddly soothing after the long day of training he’d had. Thor had long left with the gaggle, and Loki was left alone to this bliss. Blinking groggily, he stared up at a blue figure towering above him. Was it his father? His heart gave a jolt. No, no, the face was amused, Laufey was never amused… well, he was never _kindly-_ amused, he had that whole mean-amused thing that he did. This must be Helblindi.

“Enjoying your nap, brother?”

“Very much so, yes. Is there a reason that you have come to bother me, brother?”

“Just came by to see if you were still alive. Supper’s soon.”

“I’ll be there, I’ll be there.” Loki made a show of turning around, to make himself more comfortable in the mud. Helblindi laughed at his brother, but much to Loki’s annoyance his brother did not leave. Eventually, Helblindi got tired of waiting and scooped his brother out of the mud. “Hey! Hey! What are you doing!”

“Loki, you can’t go to dinner smelling of mud! Do you know what’s _in_ that mud? Animal faeces, likely!”

“There’s animal faeces everywhere, brother, the world is **_literally_** their toilet.”

“Ew… you stink. I’ll have Ganohaugh run you a bath.” And that he did. Truth be told, Loki was appreciative of the bath. He hated filth, but he’d been content pretending not to hate it so much while his brother was complaining of it. He loved being contrary more than he hated dirt, in other words.

Loki lay in the bath tub. Were this a preparation for a feast or a similarly upscale event, his father would have ordered servants to bathe Loki themselves, but this was a normal, casual dinner, and it wasn’t for another hour, so Loki could take the time to just sit back, relax, and let the relaxing salts and oils soothe his aching muscles. Oh, and he was **_certain_** he’d added to his muscle mass after _today’s_ training session. His head lolled back and he closed his eyes. If he got too cozy, he knew that he’d have to take himself out of the tub. He didn’t want to drown in here. Yes, he could hold his breath the standard 30 minutes that any Jotunn could, but that didn’t mean he could _actively_ breathe water in and be fine.

Loki dunked his hair under the water to remove the mud from it, before getting up and out of the tub. He threw on a new shendyt, a comfy cotton nighttime one, and went down to dinner. He unfortunately ran into Thor on the way.

“I’m surprised you can walk, sorcerer, or is this more magic you’ve performed for the day?”

“I’m surprised you’re so clean, Sir Thor, I didn’t know the Aesir **_bathed_**.”

“Easy to stay clean when your opponent’s the one that keeps getting shoved into the mud.”

“Funny, I recall you losing once.”

“Funny, I recall you cheating with magic on that round.”

“I did no such thing.”

“Really? You think I’m dumb? You think a weasely 450 pound man could defeat a 640 pound man like me in a fight?”

“I think I just saw it happen.”

Thor huffed. “No wonder your father thinks you are a disgrace.” Funny but true, that didn’t hurt in the way that Thor might think it did. Nevertheless, Loki could not let the blond buffoon have the last word.

“Well, at least my father didn’t birth a murderer as his heir. Or what, _Sir_ Thor, do you think you’re any better than the murderers that you slay in cold blood just because my _father_ decrees you so?” Loki walked away. He knew it killed Thor to be reminded of his position as ‘glorified murderer’ which Loki constantly used as a term to describe the blond brat.

He sat himself at the table, opposite from his brother, Helblindi, and beside his other brother, Byleistr. His mother and Jarnsaxa entered then. Loki knew his mother’s health was waning, and he didn’t think the man would last more than another century.

He’d never been close with his mother. In fact, he’d never been in the same room alone with him, save for the day of his birth. Laufey had commanded Loki to stay clear of him, given that it was Loki’s birth that had caused the distress that had led Farbauti so far off the edge in the first place. Even when it was the two of them and one of Loki’sbrothers, Loki could tell that Farbauti didn’t want Loki to be there.

Loki sipped his soup and listened as his brothers talked about their respective days. Byleistr, as future Head of the Army, had simulated a fake battle for his warriors to practice in, and Helblindi, as future King, had gone around the city and listened to the woes and plights of their people. His brothers were so lucky that their days had, in no way, involved one Sir Thor Odinson.

Thor was discussing something with Laufey, as per the norm. Oh? Whenever the two talked, it was about one of two things: sex and battle. Given that Thor had spent the entire day with him, it was likely to be the latter, which meant that there would be a fight soon, not that Loki cared much about them anymore. He used to dread them, but now he mostly felt indifference.

In other news, there was **_another_** party coming up soon, to celebrate Helblindi’s 1540th birthday, which was in a month’s time. Laufey had invited every Lord in Jotunheimr, every King. And the meat served would be from Loki’s _first ever hunt_.

Loki sat frozen in his chair, unable to move. He was not ready in the least to man a hunt, but he couldn’t tell his father. No really, there was no point in it. Once Laufey had made up his mind about something, there was no changing it. Loki just sat there and nodded. His father would pick Loki’s men for the trip. There was no way that Laufey would pick incompetent ones. Not when he _needed_ Loki to succeed in this to be married to someone with even remotely worthy lands and even remotely valuable men.

.

The sword fighting was the scariest, to be quite honest. Remembering all of Thor’s threats, old and new, and now having to be in combat with him- even if it was just a wooden sword- was terrifying.

Thor lunged at Loki, who dodged it. He’d learned previously that he was absolutely shit at blocking such attacks, given his stature and relative strength, he was much better off moving out of the way of them, trying to trip-up his opponent, get them on their backs.

Thor moved in relentlessly, backing Loki up until he was against a wall. Frightened, Loki transformed into a snake, slithered under Thor, and brought up his wooden sword into Thor’s shoulder _hard_. Thor hissed, swinging his sword around hard and bringing it into a heavy hit against the back of Loki’s head, taking him down. Thor kicked Loki’s sword away from him and jabbed his own down onto Loki’s neck, grazing his Adam’s apple.

“ ** _Dead_**!” Thor huffed, before grabbing Loki by the scruff of his collar and dragging him up. “We go again. **_Now_**! And none of your silly magic tricks, or I shall have no qualms ‘accidentally’ stepping on your exoskeleton.” He whispered that last bit directly into Loki’s ear. Loki gulped, and stood himself ready. Thor charged at him again.

And again.

And again.

This was so pointless. None of this was going to help him in a month’s time on that damned hunting trip!

Eventually, Loki grew so frustrated that he when Thor told him to start, he just shouted and charged at Thor, and went for the Asgardian’s legs.

Thor tried to kick him off, but Loki was determined. He toppled the great beast and just started hitting him. Not the brightest move to try on someone over 200 pounds heavier than you, but Loki wasn’t really thinking in that moment. In an unsurprising turn of events, Thor managed to twist things around, until he himself was straddling Loki.

Thor did not move to hit Loki, nor did Loki have the opportunity to find out if he would, because at that very moment, **_Laufey_** of all people walked in.

“Don’t hit him in the face, it’ll reduce his bride price.” The King said, mockingly. “Come, Thor, you are needed for an execution.”

Thor got up off of Loki and went to follow his king. Some executions weren’t held in the colosseum. Ones for people deemed unfit to fight, for starters, and ones for people who’d committed crimes against the state. Whatever, Loki knew he’d hear all the sordid details from Helblindi and Byleistr the moment that he saw one of them.

He got up and brushed the dirt off of him, intent on taking a **_nice_** shower.

.

The day of the hunt was upon them (2 days to go until Helblindi’s birthday party).

His father had declared that it would be a familial hunt, which meant Loki, Helblindi, Byleistr, Laufey, Farbauti, Jarnsaxa and, **_somehow_** , Thor. Loki wanted to scream and shout, how in the Nine was **_Thor_ **considered a part of their family!? To carry their supplies, and help them carry their bounty back, Laufey had allowed some of Helblindi and Byleistr’s friends to come along, which naturally included Horus.

“You know, my prince, if it exhausts you so to walk amongst us, I could always carry you,” everyone except for him, Thor and Jarnsaxa were in battle-size, and so were able to move faster.

“No thank you, Horus.” Loki said, with forced politeness. 

Pretty soon however, Loki found himself as the only ‘short person’ walking. Thor was able to fly to keep up with everyone else, and Jarnsaxa was sitting on Farbauti’s shoulder. Heaving a great, hefty sigh, Loki turned into a bird to keep up with the others. His father, who noticed this, caught Loki in one hand and threw him back to the ground with great force. He felt a bone break just moments before he heard a crack.

“No magic!” He heard his father huff unrepentantly, over the searing red that was clouding Loki’s vision, and the bile that threatened to escape his mouth. Byleistr dropped back and placed a healing crystal on him and waited with him while it healed Loki’s torn arm. The others continued on their way.

“Here I thought he’d wanted me to _succeed_ in this, who’s going to take me as a bride if I am to fail on this?” Loki muttered.

“Whether you succeed in this or not is unimportant. These old men only want two things when they look at you, Loki: to bed you and to have power in the court. They care not for your battle prowess.”

“Father chose mother after he won an ice-fishing contest.”

“Mother was not the King of Jotunheimr’s son. Even if he were to marry you off to another king, say the King of the West, you would still be from a much more powerful family… and you would still be **_much_** younger than the other king… these old men are perverts, Loki, I’m sure you already know this.”

“This is so unfair. How come father got to decide who he could marry but we don’t?”

“Because he blames his parents liberalism for your birth, you know this, Loki. He blames it for the reason that he now has an invalid for a wife! Now come, you stubborn goat, I shall carry you the rest of the way.”

Byleistr put Loki on his neck and continued marching along with the rest of the family, trying to catch up. There was a cabin in the woods that the family used for hunting. Not the Ironwood, for as much as Laufey wished to conquer it none were mad enough to dare challenge the might of the fabled Forest Witch. As a result, they had to settle for the Grave Wood instead. The place they got the wood for to make funeral boats.

Loki had used his magic to wipe clean the blood from his arm once it had healed. He hadn’t fixed the lines in his skin, those his father would know had been there, and Laufey had made it clear that he had no desire to watch Loki parade around his magic for the two days they’d be up here. Healing crystals didn’t work on benign injuries, for whatever reason.

The cabin was as unglamorous as it sounded, a _cabin_. It was a wooden construct with four rooms total in it, that was a sitting room with an open-plan kitchen, and three bedrooms. Laufey and Farbauti, the ‘happily married’ couple, were taking one room for themselves. That left eight other people with two bedrooms and a lounge to share. The princes all got to lodge together in the same room, given that they were royalty, Saxa and Thor found themselves in the third bedroom (Saxa’s dream come true), because Laufey did not want his most treasured possession to be bedless and because Saxa was small enough to fit into the cupboard-sized room (and because Laufey did not want his nephew’s reputation too terribly tarnished should he ever have need of it [sleeping with Thor never hurt anybody's resume, though Loki somehow doubted that Thor would do so on this trip in particular]). Horus, Ragnar and Jonas took the living room, which was expansive enough for the two of them.

“Goodnight, Loki.” Horus winked at them, when he caught him alone outside after Loki had gone to relieve himself.

“Goodnight, Horus.” He’d said, walking into the cabin, pretending not to see the wink. Thor was on the porch, sharpening his axe. Loki would not want to be the poor, unfortunate creature on the other end of it the following day. He said no word of greeting to Thor and instead walked calmly into the cabin, intent on sleeping away the ache in his shoulder.

.

Loki had a horrible dream that night. 

_It was the night of his wedding, he was marrying Gymir. Everyone was in attendance, even Horus of all people._

_Laufey was giving a toast. “Tonight we unite our two great lands with a_ **_bedding ceremony_ ** _!”_

_“What, father, why?” Loki asked._

_“Because we can’t be certain, given your size and magic, that you’ll go forth with this task. Now get naked and don’t ruin this for me!”_

_And then Loki was naked, and he was in his childhood bed, with Gymir looming over him, also naked. Loki’d never seen another Jotunn’s cock before- well, at least not so up close. It was so_ **_big_ ** _! It was longer and thicker than Loki’s arm- it could not_ **_possibly_ ** _go in!_

_Loki held his breath as everyone around him watched. His brothers weren’t there, but literally everybody that Loki hated_ **_was_ ** _! There was Laufey, Farbauti, Thor, Jarnsaxa, Horus…_

_Gymir parted Loki’s legs and moved to push in his big cock_.

Loki woke up, a short but deep inhale from his nose coupled with ache in his eyes. alerting him to the fact that he was, very much awake now. He slowly, tiredly lifted his head up to see that his brothers were still asleep. Loki turned on his side, soundlessly, and fell back asleep.

.

They started the next morning with a trek up to Point Fulls. Unbeknownst to anybody on this expedition, the previous night when Loki had gone to relieve himself, he’d also put some meat around using his seidr to aid him due to the time constraint. Not a problem, not like Laufey’d know.

It was an odd thing, leading a hunt when you were about a seventh of the size of the tallest people there, but sometimes that’s just how it worked out.

Loki held his spear in one hand, and analysed whatever animal tracks were visible in the snow. He pointed towards an oncoming brush. “That way! They’ve gone that way!” Hopefully his meat would have attracted something worth killing, like a Dorangusnipe, the Bilgesnipe’s fearsome, sabre-toothed, meat-eating cousin that could easily snap a man in half. 

Even when the tracks ran dry, Loki lead them on, over to the mini-canyon he’d left the meat in. It would be hard for the Dorangusnipe to get out of, if it had gone in at all, easy kill. Laufey, of course, could say nothing. This was Loki’s hunt, as long as he didn’t use magic (to Laufey’s knowledge) everything was fair game.

Loki pulled back some vines and led the party through, they were almost at the mini-canyon, steps away, really, when something ran past them fast. That same something shoved Loki into the mini-canyon. Loki fell down into the wide pit with a thud. Loki looked up.

It was a _Graceraptor_. Red, dinosaur-like, six foot five tall. A fairly rare beast, not too much bigger than him, largely considered a pest to most Jotnar.

But not to Loki, who was permanently stuck at 6”2 (he’d grown in the past 139 years). The creature snapped it’s jaws in Loki’s direction. Loki quickly scrambled for his spear, but the creature, quite intelligent for a non humanoid, flicked its tail at the spear throwing it to the side.

Oh fuck Laufey and his no-magic rules, Loki was going to **_die_**! Loki barrel-rolled to the side and created seven illusions of himself. The raptor roared and charged at the real Loki, Loki used his ice magic ( _far_ more acceptable in Jotunn culture) to barricade himself from the thing. It wouldn’t last long, Loki knew. He turned himself invisible. And sprinted for the spear.

Somehow the bloody beast caught up with him and went in to bite him. Loki only narrowly managed to avoid getting his arm bitten off. Loki grabbed his spear and flung it at the beast, getting it straight through the jaw.

He’d managed it.

He’d won.

His victory was short-lived.

He’d been right about the Dorangusnipe. The twenty-foot sabre-tooothed beast stared at him with its red eyes. Fuck.

He spun around when he heard it moving towards him. He yanked at the spear but it wouldn’t come out, it was lodged too deep in the Graceraptor. Loki didn’t have the time for this, he made a break for it. 

He quickly reached the wall of the canyon. He ran up a little then sent icicles shooting at the creature. He shot mainly at the eyes, sending spikes out of the canyon wall, but the beast was a sturdy one. It widened its jaws at him, pursuing him relentlessly. It flung its tail at him, sending the spikes along it Loki’s direction. One hit him in the arm, the other in the abdomen, he hopped off the wall in pain. the beast was nearing him, it was going to-

_Thud_! The creatures head fell clean off. Loki looked up at it. It was dead. He could hear heavy breathing and feel a sudden heavy presence behind him. He turned around, expecting another fight.

It was Thor. Who himself was injured. What in the Nine had gone down here?

“Are you injured?” Thor asked, Loki shook his head, no, though it was clearly a lie given that there were _two spikes_ jutting out of him. He knew that Thor was asking for Laufey’s sake, his father needed him alive to complete his conquest of the Realms.

A big hand picked Loki up, it was Helblindi, who was also injured. “Brother, you seem harmed, come, we’re going back to the cabin… oh, did you kill that Graceraptor? Nice.” He knew that Helblindi was only being polite. As previously stated, most Jotnar saw Graceraptors as little more than pests, given that they were still shorter than them in their (most Jotnar’s) shortest height.

Laufey was pissed. Of **_course_** he’d seen Loki use his magic. It didn't help that a whole host of carnivorous monsters had been attracted to Loki's 'bait'. The man’s shoulder was bleeding, but it didn’t stop him from screaming at Loki at the top of his lungs. Mother was hurt too, his wounds being tended to by Jarnsaxa at the present moment. Loki had had a near death experience today. Not willing to show any hint of emotion in front of his father, who had clearly wished that Loki would have died today rather than had used his seidr, Loki went off to have a quick bath in the stream nearby.

He stripped down naked (not a lot to strip), and flicked his hand, searching the water for anything deadly. He’d had enough surprises for today, thanks, and whilst his father was still angry with him for using his ‘tricks’ he might as well milk it, right? Nothing underneath as far as his magic could reach, so, relaxed, Loki stepped into the flowing water.

He heard some shuffling. “Oh, Loki, I didn’t know that you would be here.” **_Horus_**.

“Horus, hello.”

The man in question smirked in a way that made Loki uncomfortable, and even though his hips were already under the water, Loki took the moment to just slide in there a bit deeper.

“You okay in there, Lokes?” Norns _no_! “It seems kind of deep. Don’t worry, I’ll stay here and keep an eye on you.”

“Uh- no, no need.” Loki stammered. Norns he just wanted this to end. He supposed that he ought to be grateful that Horus wasn’t more forceful than he was. Truth be told, if the man was to take him by force, here and now, he wasn’t entirely certain that his father would believe him.

“I insist… anyway, just came here to have a bath myself.” The man took off his shendyt. Loki looked away, giving him the privacy he knew the man didn’t want. “My, look at you, you’ve been growing you know. Norns, I remember back when you were just a little kid! _Now_ look at you!” He heard Horus drop into the water… and could feel him coming close.

If it came to it, Loki had no problem using his magic to defend himself. Yes, Horus was bigger and stronger than him, but Loki could turn himself into a damned crocodile if the need arose, and by the _Norns_ if Horus thought for even so much as one minute that Loki wouldn’t snap the man’s balls right off!

There was a rustling in the bushes. They both turned to face them. Horus was still above water enough that his genitals were peeking out, but Loki was pointedly looking _anywhere else_.

A mop of blond hair came into view, which meant it could only be either Jarnsaxa or- _Thor_! The man had clearly come here for a scrub, Loki wrinkled his nose, and from the smell of it he clearly needed one. Oh, he could not have thought of a more perfect time for the big, blond twat to come by! (Save, of course, for earlier that day when Thor saved his life).

Thor stripped, Loki looked away and went back to his bathing. **_Ha_**! Just **_try_** and make inappropriate advances while Laufey’s lap-dog was just yards away. No, seriously Horus, just _try it_!

.

It was only at the feast that Loki remembered to say the words ‘thank you’ to Thor. 

“Your father ordered me to do it.” Thor said, bored.

“Still, I thought you said you wanted me dead. You say it like thrice a month at the least.”

“Oh, I do want you dead.” Thor said, simply but in an honest way that Loki just couldn’t find it in him to be mad about. “But not while Laufey is capable of killing me himself for the deed.”

“Might I ask **_why_** you are so desperate to have my head on a platter, Sir Thor?”

“You don’t deserve to know.” And then Thor turned and walked away, leaving behind a grumpy Loki.

Gymir was at the party, and he was certainly having fun. The man had gulped down half a barrel of wine already, and still he was standing! Then again, normal Jotnar could take in a lot more alcohol than runts, because it just went in to feed the ‘big guy’.

“Loki!” The old man greeted. Gymir was a full 700,000 years older than Loki- that was almost as old as **_Laufey_** , dammit. Still, he supposed that he was lucky. For every ten thousand years after the age of 500,000 (which was about 40 on Midgard) they lost around half an inch of height, some more and some less. Eventually one would get so small that they’d simply switch to their second size, which was about six feet taller. Gymir was still on his first size, but had lost 20 inches from his former glory height of (allegedly) 10 feet and five inches, bringing him down to 8 feet and ten inches. Still a mammoth in comparison to Loki, but smaller than most other people.

“Gymir.” Loki bowed, his hair tied back in a small ponytail. “How have you been, old friend?”

“Just fine. And what of yourself? Your brother brags that you felled a Graceraptor all on your own.”

“Yes, well, you know, they’re just common pests.”

“Not to a runt though, that must have been terrifying.” Gymir said. “Come on along now, dinner’s about to be served.” Gymir took Loki with him to sit, not giving Loki much choice on where he himself could sit.

During the dinner Gymir only had more to drink. He talked to Loki, flirted a little. Loki himself took quite a bit of wine in, the flirting did not help him stop. Loki picked at his fish and laughed politely at the jokes. 

Then Gymir got touchy. It started with a caress of Loki’s hand, an hour in the party had gotten a bit wilder (for everyone, not just them), and Loki found himself sitting in Gymir’s lap, the older Jotunn feeding him dessert, which had just been served. Loki’s breath hitched as Gymir’s free hand wandered got closer to his upper thigh. He’d never been touched there before. At first it had just been cupping his arms and chest as Gymir complimented Loki’s physique. Two bottles of wine later the man had his hand on Loki’s knee, and had started inching it up slowly. Now it was at Loki’s thigh.

Loki was underage. On Jotunheimr he was 1179, the Midgardian equivalent of a seventeen-and-then-some year old, any higher and what Gymir was doing would be considered illegal _regardless_ of how close Loki was to the age of consent. Loki’s eyes wandered the table and, by chance, caught his father’s. Loki looked away quickly.

But Laufey’s attention was now drawn to Gymir. Loki knew that deep down Laufey didn’t care, however he couldn’t get Loki married to a dead man, try as he might, he needed Gymir alive.

“Gymir.” Laufey called, three seats down from him. “I heard from Alvaldi that you recently fought a stray Woras!”

“Yes, I did.” Gymir then went on to describe the battle, forgetting all about the Loki in his lap.

Eventually the party came to an end. “It was a pleasure as always, Gymir.”

“Likewise, Loki.” Gymir smiled Loki’s way before turning off to leave.

On his way back to his room he stumbled past a grumpy-looking Thor (Thor was always looking grumpy, go figure), threw up in a vase, and fell asleep on the stairs that led to his wing.

.

The final Execution of the year was to take place on New Year’s Eve (yes, Loki realised that that itself was quite ironic). His 1180th birthday had come and gone without too much fanfare. Yes, Laufey needed Loki to marry someone powerful, yes he’d probably plan the wedding for as early as possible, and **_yes_** that meant that Loki needed to have a bigger presence at parties, but that didn’t change the way that Laufey felt about Loki in the slightest.

Loki sat in the stands, watching the prisoners hack at each other. Asvid was winning. On his shendyt was written ‘murderer’, but here’s what they **_didn’t_ **tell you on the shendyt:

Asvid had supposedly murdered Vingnir, Hlora’s now deceased wife, whom he was having an affair with. Loki didn’t buy it, and he was certain that others in the court had their own doubts and suspicions about the whole affair. Some thought that Hlora had killed Vingnir in a jealous rage and framed it on Asvid… others believed that it had been a tactic to make himself single once more so that he could petition Laufey to have Loki as his wife. Both were despicable motives, but whatever the case, there was a **_serious_** level of doubt in Laufey’s verdict that it was, in fact, Asvid who had committed he murder.

Asvid was a good fighter too. Loki thought it was a shame to lose such talent, and oh did he know that Asvid was going to lose. In the final round, as with all finalists in the rounds before him, Asvid would be going face-to-faace against Laufey’s Lapdog himself, one Sir Thor Odinson!

Loki watched Asvid swing a hammer into his current opponent, a drug trafficker, bashing his brains out. Nice technique. Loki loved a backhanded attack, such finesse.

And just like that, Asvid found himself in the final round against one Sir Thor Odinson himself. A bell sounded and the games began.

Loki had many problems with Thor, Thor’s fighting was not one of them. He possessed a legendary prowess, one that would be sung about in ballads tor many millions of years after his death. Loki supposed that having a brain made of meatloaf made up for the unfair physical advantage that Thor had. Saying Thor was a bad fighter was like saying he was ugly, simply not true. No, Thor wasn’t ugly, he was just barbaric and an idiot… no wonder he fitted in so well on Jotunheimr.

Asvid swung his hammer in Thor’s direction, even managing to whack Thor in the arm at one point, but once Thor had had enough time to summon it, a great burst of lightning charged his axe. He swung his axe at Asvid, slicing through his leg. The pain of the electric current took precedence over the fact that Thor had just chopped off of his leg, Asvid’s mind went numb. Asvid screamed and fell. He fell down into a puddle of his own blood. Thor just let the lightning do the rest of his work for him, by summoning lightning and channelling it through Storm Breaker repeatedly, until Asvid stopped flopping around.

Thor lifted his axe to raucous applause. Honestly, Loki hadn’t expected any different, but a tiny, **_small_ **part of him had maybe-almost hoped that Asvid would win it instead. Use the opportunity to clear his good name.

That seemed an unfair and unfitting end to a young, innocent man’s life. Loki wasn’t trying to justify cheating, because it was **_literally_** unjustifiable, but the death penalty seemed a bit harsh for it.

That night, Loki did what Loki did best, he provoked. He walked to Thor’s apartments, something he did from time to time whenever he was feeling extra spiteful. As was to be expected, he encountered Thor on the way there.

“You killed an innocent man today, well done.” Loki greeted. Thor had been expecting him somewhat. Truthfully Loki often found Thor after a win in the ring to taunt him.

“I have no idea who you are talking about.”

“Oh don’t act dumb, Sir Thor. Asvid. He didn’t kill Vingnir, Hlora did. Everyone knows. You just killed an innocent man.” Loki smirked, the feeling of righteous fury coursing through his veins. “How does it feel?”

Thor shook his head in denial. “I trust that Laufey-King would not have sentenced an innocent man to his death.”

“You place a lot of faith in my father. You know, sucking his cock won’t make him release you.”

“Oh, and you’d know this from experience I assume?” Oh, how Thor infuriated him.

“Much.” Loki said, not willing to let Thor shock him into silence. Loki was a skilled orator, like hell would he give Thor a smug sense of victory associated with beating Loki at that which he was skilled in. “I liked it when he whacked at your arm, I see you’ve still got the scar.”

“It’ll be gone by the week’s end.” Thor grunted. “Are you done, or is there more you’d like to say?”

Loki’s face went red. “Savour your victory against an innocent man then, Sir Thor. But never overestimate your worth to Laufey-King. He’d have no trouble whatsoever sending you an innocent man to slaughter, knowing full well that it’d way on your conscience twice as heavy as it ever could on his.” And then Loki turned and left, fully content with the idea of not seeing Thor until early spring.

.

“What do you mean I’m marrying Uncle Thrym?” Loki splurted.

“Not permanently. But your uncle possesses a valuable weapon, one which we need if we ever hope to conquer the Nine. You are needed for this purpose, that is the end of this discussion.” Laufey said, bored already.

“I’m underage!”

“Not in Thrymheimr.” Thrym had changed the law the previous afternoon to suit his needs.

“And what weapon is so great that you’d risk losing me as a potential key to tying down another alliance in the future? Say one with Gymir, who has twice the men Thrym does.”

“A hammer. A magic hammer. In Thrym’s hands it is our downfall, we are lucky that he does not know that yet. He has agreed to trade it for your hand in marriage.”

“And so what? Am I supposed to kill him once we are wed then?” Loki asked, furious. A knock sounded at the door.

“Enter!” Laufey called.

Into the room walked Thor. Loki had been unaware that there was a scheduled Execution (or, to be fair, just an execution) coming up. He looked to his father for clarification, fully expecting him tojust say a quick word to Thor so that their conversation could continue. Much to Loki’s shock, after a quick greeting towards Laufey, Thor simply went to stand beside Loki.

“My brother-in-law, being the wise man that he is, permitted you to come along with one Frost Bitch as your handmaiden, to avoid the risk of conflict… that ‘Frost Bitch’ is going to be Thor. He will accompany you to the wedding, and at the moment that Thrym gifts you the hammer, you can pass it on to Thor and he can use it to kill Thrym, dissolving the marriage. Is that understood?”

“Yes, father.” Loki nodded, tersely.

“Aye, sire.” Thor nod-bowed in Laufey’s direction.

“Excellent. Loki, you have some wedding preparations you need to be getting to.”

.

Thrym’s court, understandably, dressed quite different to their own. For starters, they didn’t typically wear shendyts, instead opting for something sort of like a chlamys but with a rope tied around the waist, on account of the colder weather.

Loki turned around in his mirror in the accursed thing. He looked so weird in it. It was red, which wasn't Loki’s colour, but was one that was traditionally worn by the bride to a wedding given its association with fertility. 

Loki’s hair was decorated with strings of light rubies, a big heavy veil, and a bit of makeup was put on him. He presented himself to Laufey, who approved, and then went off to go and shove everything but the chlamys into a rucksack. He then went to wait in the throne room for Thor, bag in hand.

Eventually, Thor graced him with his presence. He was dressed up as a bridesmaid, gown and all. Thor was obviously displeased by his garb. Thor grunted and grabbed Loki by the waist, probably to whisk them off with Storm Breaker, but Loki quickly jumped out of his grasp.

“Oh what _now_?" Thor snapped, frustrated.

“I’m supposed to be going with a _Frost Bitch,_ not you. Uncle Thrym will be able to do the maths in his head in regards to how long it should take us to get there.”

“Wouldn’t he just believe we teleported?”

“Nobody’s powerful enough to teleport half-way across Jotunheimr. And besides, they’d see us flying in.” Loki moved to leave the hall. “We go on by wolf. It’s the fastest way there that isn’t suspicious.” Loki exited the room.

.

Day 1 of 3: the pace wasn’t so bad, but the company could use a little working on. 

Loki watched the hills roll by. Usually he’d relish the thought of an opportunity like this to make fun of Thor, to bring him down. Right now he was mostly worried about the marriage. What if this went wrong? His father wasn’t exactly the most brilliant tactician out there.

What if Thrym forced him to sleep with him? His father had said that ‘after the ceremony’ Thor would take the gifted hammer and kill Thrym in his men, but what if that happened **_after_** the bedding ceremony? There were runts that **_died_** from sex with full-sized Jotnar, all the runts that worked in the brothels in the far North were **_infertile_** from the damage done to their reproductive organs whilst engaging in intercourse with giants. It was terrifying.

Oh, Loki hoped that Thor didn’t pick up on his silence. The last thing that he  needed was the big, blond oaf mocking him for his fear of this. Urgh, he was _so full of himself_! 

Thor stayed silent throughout the ride. In truth, he was quite enjoying not having to listen to Loki’s petty jabs and insults. The landscape of Jotunheimr was quite beautiful. He couldn’t wait for the day that his father was able to raise a strong enough army to defeat Jotunheimr, then Thor could enjoy the landscape as a free man. After first killing Loki, of course.

Now, a sane person might at this point wonder why Thor had such a great desire to kill Loki. It all came back to his earliest memory, the memory of Laufey dragging him to Jotunheimr. The day that Laufey stormed Valaskjalf and killed Baldr, prompting Odin to declare defeat. Baldr. A **_baby_**. **_Thor’s baby brother!_** Laufey had ripped him from Frigga’s arms and bashed his brains in, he’d dropped the lifeless corpse on the floor, then he’d turned to make a move for Thor.

To say Thor obsessed over that memory would be an understatement. He thought of it anytime he wasn’t physically doing something. He’d lied to Loki about his faith in Laufey, he just honestly hadn’t cared all that much about killing Asvid. He was a Jotunn. The Jotnar were an evil peoples.

And so it was that the **_entire_** first day’s ride, neither of them spoke a word to one another. Eventually, as the night pulled in, they took their first break near a stream. Loki lead the wolves to the water to drink and Thor went to set up the camp and gather wood and all that.

Loki looked up, starting into the woods in front of them. It was a secret known only to him that the reason that this trip was a three-day trip instead of a two-day trip was because the shortest way to get to Thrymheimr was **_technically_** through the Ironwood, and Loki had no intentions whatsoever of going through there. He could have told his father, sure, the Jotnar were highly superstitious beings, but he could in no way tell Thor this ever. Thor was a pig-headed, stubborn man who was also incredibly egotistic. If Loki told Thor he didn’t want to go through the Ironwood for fear of running into the Forest Witch, Thor would huff and say something incredibly toxically-masculine like ‘I can take him’ when in reality, Loki as 150% certain that Thor could not, in fact, take the Witch, assuming he was even real.

In an alternate reality, Loki may not be so inclined to believe the Witch was real. He might wander into the Ironwood, curious as he was, discover a man there, fall in-love with him and eventually flee from him once their relationship turned toxic. Good thing that Loki was in this reality where no such thing would occur!

Loki took the two wolves and led them back up to the campsite. The wolves were like normal wolves, but in comparison to a normal-sized Jotunn, which was what made them so optimal for wolfback riding when hit came to runts and Thor. Loki had a brief thought to his cousin, Jarnsaxa, who must be at dinner right now hearing about what was happening. He’d hate that Loki was alone with Thor even more than he would hate that Loki was about to become Jarnsaxa’s new step-mother. While Loki had no interest whatsoever in the piece of shit that was Thor, it did amuse him to no end to think about the plights of his cousin. Poor stupid Jarnsaxa, if only you weren’t so air-headed you might actually be a decent Jotunn being.

By the time Loki headed up, and boy had he taken his sweet time on account of him knowing that Thor wouldn’t question him on it but it would still drive the Asgardian **_mad_** , Thor had finished with the campsite and was sitting by the campfire with some of the provisions they’d packed.

Loki smirked when Thor looked up at him approaching. He knew Thor wouldn’t ask what had taken him so long. Norns was this gratifying. Loki plopped down beside Thor and stared at their provisions. He reached for a strip of jerky and began to nibble on it. In truth he wasn’t particularly hungry. He’d been sitting all day, and oh yeah, there was a chance he could die on this trip. He could die in a rather unpleasant way. He felt a bit dizzy.

“What’s the sleep schedule? Are we taking shifts?” Loki asked, wanting more than anything to go to sleep.

“Yeah. I’ll go first.” Thor grunted.

Loki got up and headed to the tent and feel asleep.

.

Loki had a dream that night, not too dissimilar from the one he’d had during the hunt.

_Loki was sitting on Thrym’s lap and his uncle was kissing him and touching him. It was disgusting. Then he was laying him down_ **_on the feast table_ ** _and then he was taking Loki, thrusting into his cunt in front of everyone. And there was blood everywhere. Then the dream morphed. Loki was in a medical lounge being told by a healer that he was unable to bear children._

Loki woke up. His eyes opened. Tired, he lifted his head and looked around. He tried to go back to sleep, but his stomach was growling. He drew a quick stripe on his wrist and saw the time to be about 1:20 AM. 2 more hours before he took over from Thor. Crap.

Well, he had two options here. Try and fail to go to sleep, or go grab some grub (which was out there with Thor) and then come back and hopefully fall asleep (assuming no insomnia). He chose to stay inside, it was only two hours, right?

Except that by the first twenty minutes Loki’s hunger was starting to make him feel sick. Groaning, he got up, steadying himself. He opened the tent and stepped out of it. Thor wouldn’t question him he knew, they hated each other, hated _talking_ to each other. 

He walked over to the food rucksack, where it sat beside an alert and attentive Thor who eyed Loki sceptically as he made his way towards him.

“What are you doing up? Your shift’s not for another two hours?” Thor said, in blatant disregard of their unofficial ‘just don’t talk to me, okay?’ rule.

“I’m hungry.” Loki said, plainly, his voice full as though he wasn’t tired. No room for space in these unofficial standoffs between them both. This was the only way to talk to Thor, really.

Sure enough, Thor left him alone. Loki looked at the provisions. Bread and jerky mostly. He took some bread and went back into the tent.

“Don’t eat in there! You’ll get breadcrumbs everywhere!” Thor hissed at him, as though the notion of lying in breadcrumbs was comparable to that of walking through the depths of hell. 

“Don’t tell me what to do.”

“Fine then. Suit yourself.”

And Loki did. He did suit himself! He went in there, munched on bread, and left breadcrumbs across the tent to his heart’s content. And then he laid down. He slipped his arm under his pillow, and winced. How had breadcrumbs managed to get under his pillow, dammit?

He slipped out his arm and wiped them off of himself.

Now, Loki had two options here. Vanish away all of these breadcrumbs, which he had no doubt that Thor would clue in to, or leave them here for Thor to sleep in when he himself came to rest. The latter it was. Loki turned and fell asleep.

He was woken about an hour and a bit later when Thor came in to wake him up for his shift. Loki yawned, got up, didn’t complain (just to screw with Thor, of course, who likely had his own perceptions of how Loki would react to this) and went to go sit on the log. 

Loki smirked, running his hands over his arms to get out the crumbs as he heard Thor tossing, turning, and cursing him. 

Loki sat and stared at the fire. His ears were listening to the sounds made, waiting for the faintest sound of anything. Had he been much of a camper in his youth, he likely would have taught himself some guard-spells, then both Thor and he could sleep, but alas he’d always been somewhat of a bedroom-dweller. You didn’t typically **_want_** to go out when you were half as tall as most people.

He tried to think about other things at first, about what new spells he was going to learn, about sneaking off to Vanaheim again to get some more books on spells, about being able to run away once his father started his war against the Realms… but all of those thoughts kept ending in a ‘yeah, sure, if Thrym doesn’t kill you’.

It was a gruesome way to die, death due to rape. Definitely not high on anybody’s list. The more he thought about it, the more sick he felt. This sure must be some valuable weapon, because if this quest went south then Laufey would lose what little reputation he still had amongst the Nine Rulers, the main rulers of each Realm.

Soon enough, morning came. A grumpy-looking Thor was woken by a grumpier-looking Loki. “Come on, we’ve got to get going.” Loki said, and Thor, with his warrior’s discipline, got up without a complaint.

They continued down the path they were on in silence, as was the norm. Eventually they came to a crossroads. The left would take them down the shortcut, the right down the route Loki was going to be making them take. Loki nudged his beast down the right. Thor frowned.

“You’re going the wrong way. The map says that that route will add a full day to our trip.” Shit.

“Map?” Oh no, oh no, oh no.

“Yes, the map. It’s right here.” Thor held it up. Loki flicked his fingers and the thing burned up into a pile of ash, scalding Thor. “Ow! What did you do that for!?” Thor looked murderous, good thing he was wearing those cuffs.

“We’re going _this way_?”

“No! I’ve had it with you! First the crumbs and now this! I’m going through on the left, it’s a direct route to Thrymheimr. You can either come with me or not.”

“You would sacrifice my father’s approval? Over a dispute as trivial as this.”

“Yes. You don’t need me, I’ll wait for you in Thrymheimr and enjoy my extra day.”

“Thor, wait!” Loki’s tone was so urgent that neither of them addressed Loki’s not taunting Thor with the title they both knew he hated, ‘Sir’, the title given to Executioners. “Thor, there is a **_beast_** in there. A great witch known as the Forest Witch.”

“Pah! I fear no sorcerer!” Thor swung Storm Breaker around in his hand.

“Well you should fear this one. Legend has it that he’s the most powerful being in the Nine.”

“Legend? You mean to tell me that he’s not even real, that he’s some made-up fairytale? I’m wasting a day of my life for some stupid fairytale?” Thor grunted. He directed his wolf in the direction of the woods, but the wolf yelped and held his position.

“Thor. It is **_dangerous_**. Listen to your wolf.” Loki said, before taking off and heading the other way.

After a good while, he heard steps behind him. He didn’t need to turn around to know that Thor had followed him. He exhaled in relief. Good. He didn’t want to have to explain to his father that he’d managed to lose his Prized Pet. Not to mention that if Thor were to die then there was no way that Loki would survive this.

They rode on in silence. From the last time that Loki had been to Thrymheimr, he knew that the road would take them directly there. The roads in Jotunheimr were only for travel between major cities. Jotunheimr’s frigid environment made it too costly to maintain roads for other purposes.

It made Loki wonder who had carved the road through the Ironwood. Whoever it was, he must have been one brave soul. Loki was a fairly-skilled seidrmadr and he wouldn’t dare challenge the might of the Forest Witch.

Loki could tell that Thor was sulking, and so chose not to say anything. Two more days and he could choose to not see Thor for a full year. There, that was his reward.

There was just one small problem. When they got to the bridge that took them out of the boundaries of Laufey’s main territory, off into the Wildlands, they found that it was broken in the middle.

“We’ll have to fly across.” Loki said. Thor shook his head.

“I can’t fly these wolves across. I _told you_ we should have just taken the Forest.”

“I’ll fix this with my seidr.” Loki hopped off of his wolf and stood at the edge of the bridge. He closed his eyes and waved his hands, trying to feel for the lost pieces of wood to reconstruct the bridge. He couldn’t find them. Bugger. Still… he summoned all the pieces of scrap wood that had fallen off of nearby trees and neatly constructed a bridge for them to cross. “Come now, quickly. I’ll hold it. You take yourself and the wolves across, then I’ll join you.”

Suddenly there was a crash and the bridge fell. Frowning, Loki checked around for what had made that crash, confident that it hadn’t been he himself.

“Ha! You pride yourself on your seidr and yet you can’t even construct a bridge. No wonder your father only deems you worthy of a bargaining chip.” Ignoring that comment, Loki peered around, and then jumped back as a giant fistsuddenly sprung out of the chasm under where the bridge ought to be, groping around. His wolf lurched forwards to bite the hand responsible, and the hand just swept it in.

“Skeller!” Loki cried, dismayed. 

“Who goes there!?” A voice boomed from inside of the chasm.

“Two Jotnar sent by Laufey to go to Thrymheimr!” Loki called back. He did not remember this part of the trip from last time. Perhaps he had been asleep. He had been fairly young back then. “In the name of The King, I command you to let us through!” He said, in a louder, more authoritative voice.

Hearing laughter from a giant who wanted to kill you was never a good thing. Thor held up his axe, ready to cut the hand off of this man. He’d gotten plenty of experience doing this in the colosseum after all.

“None shall pass the Hall of Thiazi!” And then the ground started to quake. What the fuck?

“Run!” Loki shouted, shooting back shards of ice at the rapidly emerging giant.

Thor grabbed Loki and whisked them away with his axe, off in the other direction.

“I told you! We go through the forest!” Thor shouted, over the 50mph wind.

And unfortunately, Loki had to concede.

.

They had no supplies, and Thor was not above complaining about it.

“Great! Now thanks to you we’re exactly where we should have been _five hours ago_ , except that we have no supplies with us!” Thor ranted.

“How was I supposed to know there was a giant in that chasm!?”

“Well you seemed so _awfully sure_ when you claimed there to be a witch in the woods- and yet look, we’ve been here a half an hour and _there’s no witches_!”

“I erred on the side of caution! Don’t you **_dare_** drag me for making the sensible choice!” Loki shot right back.

“Your version of a ‘sensible choice’ got Skeller killed- possibly even Lori! Are you **_proud_** about that?”

“Yes!” Wait a second-

“Oh of _course_ you are! You’re just a spoiled little prince who only cares about himself!”

“It’s better than being some old fool’s pawn in a game meant to eventually topple your homeland!”

“At least my father didn’t sentence me to death-by-cock!”

“At least my father can fight a bloody war!”

“At least my father isn’t embarrassed by me!"

“At least my father didn’t share my mother with his brothers!”

“At least my mother could stand to be in the same room as me!” 

This went on and on and on and on until the two had exhausted themselves. “I’m going to find food. You set up camp.”

Loki snapped his fingers, and a full campsite was setup, made from the debris around them, complete with a burning fire. “Done.” Loki said smugly, knowing that his use of seidr would infuriate Thor.

He watched Thor head off and fell back into the nice, comforting snow. He was a bit tired after the previous night, he doubted anyone would come across him. They were in the middle of the Ironwood, only a fool would traverse this far into the den of the Forest Witch. Further, if the Forest Witch wanted Loki dead, then Loki would be dead, whether or not he was awake.

Loki woke up to a grumbling Thor dragging over a deer’s body. This was Jotunheimr, so naturally the deer was twice Thor’s size. Thor’s hair was a mess, more so than usual, his face had more scratches than Loki remembered. Haha, he must’ve fallen or something!

Thor sat on the log opposite of Loki, likely to try and put as much distance between them as he could, and started skinning the deer. Loki could have easily done it with a snap of his fingers, Loki was willing to believe that they both knew that, but he refrained from it, choosing instead to stare at the flames.

“Your wedding garments are gone.” Thor said, finally. “We need to get new ones.” Oh, right.

“I’ve still got the one I’m wearing… I suppose Thrym will have something in his castle, from his marriage to Kella.”

“Is that Jarnsaxa’s mom?” Interesting that Thor knew that much. Maybe he’d misjudged his cousin’s chances with the beast.

“Was. He was killed in a hunting accident.” At least Laufey had **_tried_** to disguise whatever he'd done to Farbauti, anyone with eyes knew that Thrym murdered Kella. And wasn’t it just poetic that Laufey intended to marry his son off to the same monster who had murdered Laufey’s brother? Oh well, Loki supposed the saying was true, barbarians **_did_** make fine kings. Loki knew that Thor knew that that wasn’t strictly what had happened, just as he knew that Thor knew better than to continue a conversation with Loki.

Heck, Thor probably _revelled_ in the idea of Loki marrying someone with practice killing their spouse. Wasn’t that what Thor wanted, at the end of the day, Loki’s death? He never missed an opportunity to work it into a conversation… if Thor were given the weapon prior to the bedding, Loki had no doubt that the man would wait until **_after_** the ceremony to kill the other Jotnar anyways. It would be an easy way to dispose of Loki, he shivered. What more should he expect from his father’s prized beast? Maybe Laufey had even instructed him that this was the course of action to take.

It took Thor a good four hours to skin the deer. Loki was starving. He saw Thor reach for his axe once more, likely to start chopping the deer up. Loki rolled his eyes and clicked his fingers, the meat sat beside Thor, perfectly severed from the bone, in even pieces. Thor looked up and glared at Loki, but said nothing. Loki grabbed a stick, stuck it through the meat, and started cooking it. In truth, he had no clue how Thor preferred his meat. He’d only ever seen Thor eat cooked meat, as was the custom on Jotunheimr, but the Aesir were basically animals, so they might prefer it raw.

Thor skewered his meat similarly to Loki and also brought it above the fire. Interesting. 

“Nobody would come into these woods. If the Forest Witch wanted us dead, he’d have killed us already. Nobody needs to stand watch tonight.” Loki finally said, breaking the silence. Thor rolled his eyes, likely at the notion of Loki’s ‘Forest Witch’ belief, but otherwise said nothing, indicating that he was in agreement with Loki’s statement about guard duty.

They sat there a few more moments, then the wind started to pick up a bit. The hairs on the back of Loki’s neck rose, what if it was the witch? Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, oh crap!

But nobody stepped forwards. No disembodied voice echoed through the forest. The dead did not start rising. Loki shot a glance at Thor, who seemed to be on high-alert as well. Ha! He knew that not even Thor could be dumb enough to not fear a witch.

But the makeshift tent fell down. Loki waved his hand to put it back up, but it seemed that the structure itself just wasn’t sturdy enough to withstand this new breeze. Oh well, Loki supposed they were just going to have to sleep under the stars then. It wasn’t like he could just make an entire fortress for them to sleep in out of nothing. An illusion, sure, Loki was good at illusions, but not something tangible. Even the first structure had only worked because there had been real objects to craft the tent from.

Loki ripped off his traveling cloak. It would have to make do as a makeshift bed. He saw Thor do the same. He curled in on his side. The wind was relentless, it wouldn’t stop. Involuntarily, Loki found his thoughts drifting to Thor. Sure, his quarter-Jotunn status made him cold-resistant, but it wasn’t nearly as good as being a **_full_** Jotunn, and even **_Loki_** found it a bit cold. Surely the bloody mammoth would freeze to death before he ever told Loki that he was even a little cold. If Loki survived this and Thor didn’t, then Laufey would be sure to rectify that.

Still, if Loki invited Thor over **_now_** to share each other’s warmth (which- **_ew_** , that would mean possible skin contact with that dumb idiot) he was certain that the blithering idiot would refuse. He decided to wait just a little longer, until Thor knew true pain, before he did so. He had to keep the dumb bastard alive, he supposed, for now. Eventually when ‘Blindi was king, he could then have Thor executed or something, he was certain.

He waited until Thor’s teeth started chattering, knowing that Thor was likely seconds away from frostbite, before saying “It’s a bit cold. We should conserve body heat by sleeping near each other.”

“I-If you insist.” Thor’s teeth chattered. “Come on over.”

“Me? I’m a _prince_! You can do it.” Loki huffed. After all he had done for that rabid mutt. 

“Fine, brat.” Thor got up with his cloak. Loki stood up and spread his cloak out some more. They could use one as a sheet to shield them from snow, and the other as a blanket. Loki murmured a heating spell on Thor’s cloak, which Thor likely felt but did not object to.

They settled beside one another and fell asleep in the cold wind that was the Northern Thrush.

.

Loki had another dream that night (wow, these were becoming inconvenient).

_Loki was heavily pregnant, or at least he assumed so, because he felt like it. His uncle was fucking him in front of the whole Kingdom of Thrymheimr._

_“Just ten more months.” Thrym panted in his ear._

_Wait,_ **_ten_ ** _? That couldn’t be- that made no sense! He was already bursting with child, surely it would be coming out soon!_

_Then the scene morphed and there Loki was and his belly bulge was so enormous that it looked as though it were the size of himself! Nobody told him, and yet he knew that he was five months pregnant. Clearly the baby, who was by all indications going to be a full-giant, had chosen one of its larger heights to grow as, because in its smallest height it would have looked like Loki were a Midgardian women carrying twins by the end of the pregnancy, and yet it looked like he was infected by some parasite now._

_“Are you going with ‘Cousin-Loki’ or ‘Mother’?” A bored Jarnsaxa asked. (Why was Jarnsaxa even there? Hadn’t Thrym_ **_banished_ ** _him from Thrymheimr?”_

_“He’s going with ‘Laufey’s whore’, because that’s what he is, and Laufey is his pimp,” his ineloquent_ **_other_ ** _cousin, Kari, chimed in._

_“Now, now, boys. Be nice to your mother.” Thrym said, stepping in. Byleistr and Helblindi behind him. Helblindi stared at him, his eyes full of hurt emotions. That’s how Loki knew that this was real._

_“Brother, we will raise Narfi as our own.” Byleistr promised._

_“Brother, we love you. It’s okay, relax. We love you.” Helblindi’s voice kept saying, soothingly._

_“I love you too.” Loki pleaded, but then Laufey appeared and told his sons (the ones that he was proud of) that it was time to go home. He spat in Loki’s direction and then Loki was alone and everyone was back to either ignoring him or taunting him._

_And then he died and they had to cut the baby out of them. And then that was it and he was dead._

Loki’s eyes sprung open, his mouth dry from drooling. It took him a minute to just allow the waves of emotion from his previous dream to just pass over his brain, like waves along the coast, slowly adding to his rapidly approaching state of consciousness. That had been intense. He noticed also that Thor was awake and was watching him.

“Trouble sleeping?” Thor grunted.

“Yes.”

“You kicked me.” Thor accused, rubbing his neck. He had a splitting headache. It had been tough sleeping with Loki, who was by nature a rather restless sleeper.

“Oh well.” Loki had no remorse in his voice. He got up and looked at the rising sun. “We should keep going now. We’ve been granted the mercy of the Forest Witch thus far, we wouldn’t want to push our luck.”

“Oh no, take all the time that you need. I don’t mind.” Said a voice that neither Loki nor Thor had never heard before.

It was coming from the log where Loki’d sat the previous night. A man, tall (maybe about two inches more so than Thor) with taut, lean muscles and a face that was mostly plain (two square eyes, a roman nose, and a pair of thin lips), except for the eyes which were a different shade of red to what Loki was accustomed to. They had a hypnotic quality as well, those eyes, and seemed to shimmer despite that there was little to no light currently being reflected on them from the way that the man was sitting.

Thor grabbed his axe, but Loki grabbed Thor’s arm to stop him from doing anything to provoke the man. Thor was not the most diplomatic person on Jotunheimr, to say the least, which was disappointing given the competition or lack thereof. 

“Um, I’m sorry to ask, but who are you?” Loki asked as politely as possible. He could feel Thor roll his eyes, as though Thor was unfamiliar with Loki’s ability to be superficially sweet to anyone whom he might need something from/not want to piss off.

“My, aren’t you sweet? My name’s Angrboda, you can call me ‘Boda.” The Jotunn flashed a grin and a wink at Loki. “I guess you probably know me as the ‘Forest Witch’, huh, Prince Loki?”

“Lo- how did you know my name?” Loki asked, increasingly worried. In a different lifetime, Loki might have found the other giant’s seeming-omniscience to be quite charming, which might have led to them striking up a friendship, perhaps even something more, but the author of this timeline still has hopes of not exceeding 40k words.

“I know everything, darling.” Angrboda said, looking Loki up and down, like a starving wolf.

“Then I take it that you also know he’s underage?” Thor growled, no surprise there. Thor hated seidrfolk in general, bad enough he was being forced to entertain **_one_** seidrmadr.

“Of course, of course, Sir Thor.” Angrboda nodded, but his gaze did not leave Loki. “I would never prey on a child. I also know that you two are on a quest, which is why I have brought you what Thiazi took from you.” Angrboda got up and gestured to the boxes that they’d been carrying earlier.

“Wh- how? Who’s Thiazi, I’ve never heard his legend?” Loki looked up at Angrboda with wide eyes.

Angrboda threw that handsome head of his backwards and laughed. “Thiazi is my father. The old, miserable man has taken to harassing Jotnar as his retirement plan. I think he is just asking to be executed.” He then turned to Thor, suddenly, face serious. “Would you know?”

“No.” Thor shook his head.

“Ah.”

“Are you a runt?” Loki asked, curious.

“No, my sweet.”

“A Wilderman?”

“Norns, no! I’m a half-blood. My mother’s Vanir.”

“Oh, so is Thor’s mother!” Loki realised that his tone may have been a little overenthusiastic when Thor coughed in disapproval. Buzzkill.

“Is that so?” He moved closer to Loki.

“I think that we should be going now.” Thor said, angry that Loki was both wasting his time and also engaging in conduct that his father would disapprove of. Loathe Laufey he might, but Thor was still a subscriber to the customary and ancient tradition of following your parents’ wishes, and what Laufey wished for at the moment was for Loki to be shacking up with Laufey’s brother-in-law.

“Oh, I’ll walk you out. These woods are long and easily to get lost in… sorry I couldn’t recover your wolves. It seems that my father ate one, and that the other ran back for Utgardr.” Both Loki and Thor turned a bit green at that comment. “Anyways, shall we?” He snapped his fingers and the bags all disappeared.

“Where did they go?” Loki asked, anxious. 

“Oh, I just put them in a space pocket.” Angrboda shrugged, as though what he’d done was nothing at all, and to him it probably wasn’t.

“How does that work?”

“It’s a bit complicated. It’s like a teleportation spell, but for objects instead of yourself. You leave a marker on the object and then just toss it into space, and then when you need it you look for the marker, which again, is somewhere in space, and open up a mini-portal once-more to bring it back to you.” Loki looked slightly lost, personally preferring to learn things through text rather than aurally. Angrboda shook his head in amusement. “You should come by sometime, after this task, and I could teach you.”

“Sure. When?” Loki asked, excited at the prospect of getting to learn more magic. Possibly even some more **_seidr_**.

“Hmmm, how about in 20 years? Take some time to grow into your own seidr.” **_Oh this man was so transparent, Thor just wanted to bash his brains in!_**

“Thank you so much for the offer! How will I ever repay you?” In Loki’s defence, he’d never been flirted with by someone that wasn’t aeons older than him. He was used to forward lords who had no problem touching underage children (he hoped Helblindi was stricter in enforcing laws amongst the higher-ups).

“Oh, I’m sure we’ll think of something.” Angrboda purred. **_Grrrr_**.

It was like that for the rest of the trip across the vast woods. Angrboda casually flirting with Loki, Loki not noticing, Thor wanting to just curl up and die from how gross and inappropriate it all was.

They reached the outer boundary of the forest by nighttime. 

“Are you sure you don’t want to spend the night? You might run into raiders.” Angrboda suggested.

“That’s okay, I’ve got it from here.” Thor said, before Loki could do anymore talking than he’d already done today.

Angrboda shot Thor an unimpressed look, but eventually said “Fine. Just follow the path, it reconnects to the one that you two were originally on. You’ll be there by night fall. Good luck, princes Loki and Thor.” He snapped his fingers, relinquishing their belongings, and then he turned and the forest swallowed him whole.

“Sorry about skipping this way originally. I guess you were right, the myths are all wrong.”

Thor was going to fucking fly them home **_over Thiazi’s bridge_** after this. Damn the extra length to hell, he never wanted to be anywhere near the Ironwood again, if only to never hear bloody Angrboda’s voice.

.

“You’re nervous.” Thor noted, as they approached Thrymheimr. Loki had been silent the whole walk here, and shaking a little. He also kept his head down and mostly stared at the snow beneath them.

“Well, wouldn’t you be?” Loki meant it to sound snarky, but it sounded unnervingly vulnerable. Fuck. Thor seemed to pick up on that. The gruff man looked at him, unimpressed, then looked away again. Something in his expression had changed.

_And shouldn’t Thor want this? Loki would be killed on his uncle’s cock, that much was a certainty!… but wasn’t that what had also just disgusted him earlier? That Forest Witch dude, Angrboda, had been flirting with Loki… who was underaged. Thor wasn’t so young when he’d left Asgard that he didn’t know the difference between an adult and a child, and Loki was still, in effect, a child (I mean look, he couldn’t even notice Angrboda throwing himself at him). A child who was about to be murdered by sex… oh, curse his bloody parents for instilling within him good morals and principles for the two centuries that he’d had them for._

Bloody hell, he blamed it on his poor sleep the past two days.

“I… have a counter-proposal.” Thor hated himself for doing this. He’d been so close to seeing Loki die a horrific death… then, Thor supposed, **_he’d_** been the one who had wanted to administer it. What revenge did it serve if Laufey had killed both Baldr AND Loki? And Thor, being the fair and noble person he was wanted to kill Loki properly, ideally in battle, as Baldr had died (and nobody could convince Thor otherwise). “What if you and I were to trade places?”

“What?” Loki stopped in his tracks.

“I mean, you wear a veil, don’t you? To these wedding things? And it’s a rather heavy one. I could wear it and he’d think that you were me.”

“That would never work. You’re all bulky, he knows me better than that.”

“Oh, but does he? I last remember your family trekking to Thrymheimr a good two centuries ago, when you were even more of a Frost Pup than you are now…” Thor drawled, “that’s plenty of time to change up a bit.”

Loki bit his lip.

“You know, during the ceremony, the weapon is traditionally passed over to the **_bride_**. I can rip it from him right then and there and smash his brains out.”

Loki, uncharacteristically, let out a small smile. “Thank you, Thor.”

Thor grunted in response.

.

They had to swap clothes first before they got there. They put down their baggages (they’d taken everything except the camping supplies- it was too heavy to carry without wolves) and stripped down.

Loki took Thor’s dress, keeping his eyes above Thor’s chest, as professional as could be. Again, Thor was a complete _ass,_ but he was still a sex symbol on Jotunheimr, tiny as he may be. Thor took Loki’s chlamys. Loki helped him tie the belt so that it was fashionable, before reaching into the bag to grab Thor’s veil. Loki frowned.

“What’s wrong?” Thor asked.

“I’m missing a pair of underwear… oh well, I could just use what I’ve got on now.” **_Gee_** , Thor wondered **_why_** Loki was missing a pair of underwear.

Loki fixed Thor’s veil on him and adorned him with the jewellery. Thor grunted as Loki slid on a few bangles. Loki chuckled and told Thor to be grateful that this wasn’t Loki’s wedding to Gymir, because in Main Jotunheimr (ruled by Laufey) Thor would’ve had to get his nipples and nose pierced for this.

Loki, in turn, shifted his skin to look like an Aesir-female version of himself. “What? We’ll say I’m a servant from Vanaheimr, he’s more likely to believe that. Also, I doubt he’ll be able to tell it’s me when I’m not only an entirely different species, but a sex that he has never seen before.” Loki scoffed. That wasn’t the reason behind Thor’s change of expression, nor for his flush.

“Vanir women typically cover their chest.” Thor gestured at where the one-breasted dress that Laufey had gifted him left the Loki’s new breasts exposed.

“Oh.” Loki stared at it, and the top of the dress changed to something that would fully cover his chest.

“You can’t leave me in these cuffs, they’ll know I’m not you when they see your father’s inscriptions upon them.”

“Well I can’t just leave you loose and unchecked.”

“And you think, what, that these cuffs help you keep me ‘checked’? No. I could break these cuffs any time I so choose. I am kept ‘checked’ by the knowledge of what your father will do to my people keeps me checked. It is the only reason that I do not smite you where you stand, the only reason that I listen to your father.” Thor’s speech was scary. Loki took the cuffs off, not allowing himself to betray his inner fear of Thor.

They walked the remaining seven miles into Thrymheimr, where they were intercepted by the Royal Party that had come to greet them.

“Nephew!” Thrym all but purred in Thor’s direction. Thor felt goosebumps across his skin, as well as the urge to hurl Storm Breaker at Thrym’s dumb face.

Farbauti’s brother was a staggering 9”5, that was about 3-feet-and-then-some taller than Thor was.

“Uncle!” Thor greeted, in his best impression of Loki’s voice. The subtle kick Loki threw him made him well-aware that Loki did not, in fact, believe that that was what her voice sounded like, but Thor disagreed. Loki’s voice sounded **_exactly_** like nails on chalkboard. 

“Come, quickly. We are to be wedded at sunset… I see your father has sent a pretty Vanir maid with you. I’m afraid that we have no servant’s quarters prepared, as your cousin recently acquired some new slaves.”

“I can keep her.” One Jotunn chuckled. Thor and Loki both ignored him, and followed Thrym as he led them to his castle.

“First, we shall sup. I am well aware that you’ve had a long trip to get here, dear nephew, I wouldn’t want to take you while you were still hungry.” Wow was this man full of himself, Thor rolled his eyes. No matter, Thor was satisfied in the knowledge that by the night’s end the man would be dead.

Thrym led them to a beautifully decorated ballroom and sat Thor down in his lap. “My, how muscular you are.” Thrym commented, running his hands up and down Thor, infuriating the man to no end.

“He’s been doing a lot of workouts. You know how Laufey hates it when he uses his magic to protect himself.” Loki piped up.

“Very well then.” Thrym clinked his glass. “Let the feasting commence!”

Thor lunged forwards for a nice, big boar leg. He’d barely eaten in days, and the journey had been long and hard. He deserved a good meal before he bashed some faces in.

“Wow, uh, his appetite sure has grown since his last visit…” Councilman Rifingoflu blinked, bewildered at the volume and speed at which Thor was eating at.

“Uh, yes, well, uhm, he’s just peckish.”

“Look at how hairy he is.” Senator Sivör shook his head. “I thought Frost Bitches were mostly hairless.”

“Yes, well, he is of **_Laufey’s_** blood, you know, so even though he is a Frost Bitch, he’s still quite masculine.” Loki giggled.

Thor let out a large belch. ‘Was he **_trying_** to get them killed?’ Loki wanted to scream.

“He’s a bit ill. Sorry if he is- Loki. **_Loki_**! Put down that win- **_Loki!!!_** ” Loki snapped, glaring at Thor who stared at her in a ‘do you dare tho?’ fashion. Curses.

“Alright, my dear. I suppose it’s time we tied the knot.” Thrym kissed the top of Thor's head. Incest was forbidden on Asgard, that much Thor knew, so naturally he felt repulsed at the thought that had they stuck to Laufey’s plan, it would have been **_Loki_** that Thrym was fondling like this, his own **_nephew_** , the son of his brother. “Come along now. Uh… maid, you too, bring Loki’s ceremonial axe!” Loki picked up Storm Breaker and followed as Thrym led them to the atrium where they were to wed.

“What are those?” A nearby Jotunn pointed to Loki’s chest.

“Breasts.” Loki replied, flashing him a smile.

“What do they do, uh, exactly?”

“They let me feed the children I birth.”

“Oh… because you’re from a hot planet, so you don’t need to conserve as much body heat. On Jotunheimr, our Frost Bitches grow their breasts once their child is born, and the breasts fade away over time. We cannot afford to expend unnecessary heat when there is no use for it.”

“I see.” Loki nodded. Thor, who was listening, was internally groaning, because of **_course_** the seidrmadr would know so much about women, given how much time he spent dabbling in women’s craft. If Thor had to be honest, Loki had done quite a decent job at picking a Vanir-looking skin.

Weddings on Thrymheimr were a bit different. First the vows were read, then the contract was signed, then the weapons were exchanged, then there was a feast (which they’d seemingly shoved to the front due not special circumstances regarding how long the two had had to travel), then there was the bedding ceremony.

“I, Thrym, promise to have and to hold you, to love you, to cherish you, and to get you with many children.”

“And I, Th-Loki, promise to give birth to as many babies you as want you. And hold also the babies and raise them.” Oh, this was a disaster. How could Loki trust Thor to wield this supposed high-energy hammer now, when he was like this?

“Then, by the power vested in me, I authorise this marriage. You may sign the certificate and trade weapons.” They did that, though Thor managed to get away with signing the paper as ‘Thor, <3 <3’ instead of as something that Loki might pick. Loki was going to kill the bloody fool.

They traded weapons, Thor gave Thrym Storm Breaker, and Thrym gave Thor a weapon that he called Mjolnir. The moment that that weapon was in Thor’s grasp, Thor ripped off his veil and held Mjolnir to the sky. He’d never felt so powerful. As Thrym realised that he had been played, Thor leapt into the sky, and swung for Thrym’s head. The surprise blow found Thrym on the floor, blood oozing from his head. Loki wasn’t sure if he was dead, but there was certainly some brain damage there.

Rushing, Loki went to pick up Storm Breaker, so that he (he’d transformed back) could at the least defend himself.

Loki swung the axe at the unarmed Jotnar. They could not leave a single person in attendance alive, no witnesses to write to other kingdoms and tell them of Laufey’s treachery (Loki was certain that Thrym hadn’t told the other kings yet. Had he done so there would have been a revolt).

Loki barely needed to do any fighting. Thor was slaying giants left, right, and centre. And Loki? Loki was panicking at all the dead bodies around him. It was a scary sight, seeing ones own race falling dead in heaps and piles. He could not deny the fear that Thor was going to do the same to him. One Jotunn tried to grab at Loki, but Thor shot him down with lightning. Loki yelped at how close Thor had come to killing him

He curled into a ball, he didn’t want to be here. He felt a warm presence nearby him. It was Thor.

“Get up!” Thor spat.

“Why? So you can kill me.”

“I’m not going to kill you right now. I owe you a favour for the hammer. I’ll kill you at a later date, at **_my_** discretion, not when **_you_** deem it fit! Now get. Up.” Thor commanded, and so Loki did. 

“There’s probably a stables here, we can-” Thor grabbed Loki around the waist and swung them away.

.

Loki’s new nickname for Thor was ‘auntie’. Thor reminded Loki that he had been an **_actual girl_** , and proceeded to call Loki ‘lassie’. Loki had gone back to ‘Sir Thor’. Though he did remind Thor that he was now Jarnsaxa’s mother.

Once they were back at the palace, Loki decided it was time to begin his well-earned break from being anywhere near the behemoth. 

Soon enough the next Execution arrived. Thor was using Mjolnir for the first time in the ring. There was an air of excitement in the ring. Jarnsaxa was sitting on the edge of his seat to watch his crush-and-on-again-off-again fight with this new, magical weapon of his. Loki wondered if Jarnsaxa knew that it was the same weapon that had killed his father (Kari had already taken over as King, he’d been sworn in by Laufey).

Thor walked out into the ring swinging Mjolnir. She was just as terrifying as Loki remembered her. Thor swung at his contender, a Serial Killer, who lifted his shield up to stop it hitting him. The hammer went through the shield and slammed into the giant’s side.

Thor then caught it and sent forth a strong, single beam of pure white lightning, which was not something that Loki had seen with Storm Breaker. Interesting. With Storm Breaker, Thor's seidr was chaotic, with Mjolnir it was almost beautiful. The giant shrieked. Thor flew up (seems it was common amongst his weapons, then) and smashed the hammer into the giant’s head with finesse, leaving him dead.

“Woah.” Jarnsaxa breathed, enraptured.

Loki watched silently. Woah indeed,

.

The celebration that had prompted the Execution? Laufey’s 900000th birthday!

Hlora was in attendance, though his wife had died not even a year prior. Questionable mourning, that.

Hlora, who seemed intent on making up for lost time, was chatting up Laufey, and was bragging about some new slaves he’d managed to buy due to his land’s bountiful harvest in the summer. Some were **_Fire Giants_** , proud beasts from Muspelheim that would scorch any who crossed them. Laufey was nodding along in barely feigned boredom.

“Loki! Hlora, you remember my son!” Laufey pushed Loki in front of him.

“Indeed I do.” Why were all of these old lords so predatory? Why couldn’t there be just **_one_** nice one?

“Loki, why don’t you show Hlora around the castle?”

“Certainly.” Loki nodded his head, not really wanting to do this, but going along with it because he’d be in a lot of trouble if he disobeyed his father in public.

Loki lead Hlora into the corridor.

“What would you like to see first?”

“What’s there to see?”

“We have a lovely pavilion, a giant library, and a fabulous greenhouse.” Loki offered.

“Hmmm, the library sounds lovely.” Interesting, not many would have chosen it. In fact, some would have inquired as to whether or not Laufey had a Trophy Room (which, yes he did) and asked to see that instead.

Loki led Hlora to the library. It was completely empty, on account of everyone in the castle being at the party.

“Do you have a section on boils and bumps? I’m afraid I’ve been getting a rash quite often as of late.”

“Why yes, come over, it’s near the back.” Loki led Hlora to the back of the library, where all of the medical books were. The Medics on Jotunheimr did not fuck around when it came to their knowledge. It was actually quite admirable. “Uh, where’s your rash?” This was important in determining what book to pick.

“Here.” Hlora lifted his shendyt. Loki flinched away from him, but Hlora grabbed Loki’s wrist with force and brought it to- oh no. Loki struggled trying to get away.

“What-what are you doing?” Loki gasped. He tried to summon his seidr but was in too much pain to do so due to the grip on his wrist.

“Sssh, I thought you’d like this.” Hlora forced Loki’s hand to run up and down his member. This was disgusting, this was gross, Loki kept struggling to get away.

“I’m underage!” Loki pleaded.

“Barely!” Hlora chuckled, spinning him around and shoving him into the bookshelf. “My, you’ve grown quite a bit since I last saw you. So beautiful.” He ripped Loki’s shendyt and underwear off from him, leaving him bare and exposed. “I had to have you before _Gymir_ did, I saw the way he played with you at the last feast. You want to know a secret, little Loki? I killed my wife for you, hmm, yes. I think it was worth it. Very nice indeed.” He positioned his member over Loki’s cunt, Loki was unprepared **_and_** a virgin, this was going to hurt a lot. More so than his broken nose (blame the hard edge of the bookcase) already did. The head of Hlora’s penis pressed into Loki’s entrance.

“Halt!” A loud and commanding voice boomed throughout the library, and in that moment Loki knew 2 things: 1) His father was about to arrest Hlora for attempted child rape (and murder, depending on how much he’d heard) 2) This had all been a setup to get Hlora in this. Laufey had _wanted_ for Hlora to almost rape Loki- heck, maybe he’d wanted to wait for actual penetration to make he case against Hlora all the more damning. Probably to seize Hlora’s lands, given that Hlora had no heirs nor family to claim them. “Hlora Magnison, you are under arrest for child rape!” 

“What!?” But before Hlora could move, he was being restrained by guards, once more leading Loki to believe that Laufey had planned this. “What? No! This was a setup! He’s only 20 years away from being of age! He’s basically an adult! You even had him married to Thrym!” He kicked and struggled in the guards’ grasp, but then there was a thunk and he fell unconscious. Mjolnir. Loki looked up and saw Thor staring at him with that murdery-broody-indifferent face of his. Suddenly, Loki realised that he was naked in front of a bunch of his father’s guards and grabbed his shendyt to cover himself with.

Loki got up on shaky legs and quickly retreated to the safety and solace of his chambers, his heart pounding. He’d almost been raped. Was it even almost, or was it **_actual_** rape? He felt himself down there, where Hlora had been about to shove his dick in, it felt different. Hlora hadn’t actually made it in, the tip almost had, but he hadn’t really. So Loki was safe, right? Nothing to worry about then? He’d been fine.

He wanted to kill Laufey himself. He wanted to slay his father for everything he’d put him through- not just this, but his willingness to marry him off to Thrym as well! He **_ought_** to kill his father, not just wanted to, **_ought to_**! Helblindi would make a fine king. He blinked back angry tears. Fuck Laufey! Fuck him! Fuck him so much! A silent scream erupted in the back of Loki’s throat, he could feel his temperature start to pick up. **_Fuck that fucking bastard_**!

.

Loki stopped speaking to Laufey after that. He was certain that Laufey hadn’t even noticed, but nevermind, it brought **_Loki_** satisfaction, and Loki was all that Loki cared about. Of course **_everyone_** was talking about the fact that a Lord had been sentenced on **_child rape_** charges- not so much because he’d done it, but rather because Laufey had actually cared enough to lock him up for it. To nobody’s surprise, Hlora had found himself awaiting Execution by combat. But that wouldn’t be for another month or so.

Loki had to assume that the guards had kept the subject of the attempted rape a secret, because there was a gossip mill running of who the victim was. Some speculated another Lord’s child, one volunteered **_Jarnsaxa_** of all people, clearly managing to forget that Jarnsaxa had been of age for a good hundred years. Jarnsaxa, vain creature that he was, didn’t correct them on that, enjoying the sympathy people sent his way. Fuck Jarnsaxa.

Loki didn’t make eye-contact with anyone from that night. Where he would usually send a barb Thor’s way, or a cleverly worded insult, he now mostly avoided the man entirely, not even sending him the occasional glare at mealtimes. All the while, oblivious to the worry of his brothers who had noticed a change in him, Loki plotted his escape from the castle. How he was going to leave, when he’d be going, **_where_** he’d be going. It was perfect! He’d claim to want to go hunting, then he’d fake his own death. He was a shapeshifter, it’s not like anyone would know that it was him. He just wanted to leave and never come back… well, never was a long time, and he certainly wanted to be around for his brothers’ brats, but at the very least he would not return in Laufey’s lifetime, that much was definite. He’d tour the Nine, make a name for himself, do something grand or the other. Maybe he’d take up Angrboda on those magic lessons, though Thor had remarked shortly after leaving the Ironwood that Angrboda had intended to sleep with him. Still better than bloody Utgard.

.

It came soon enough. Thor paced out of his door, the one specially crafted for him. It had been a whole two months since thee last Execution, and Thor’d been itching for it. He missed the feel of Jotunn blood on his hands.

Hlora had defeated all of his opponents thus-far using the giant club he carried with him. In truth, Thor did not know why it was not a more popular weapon on the Ice Planet, it seemed quite effective from what he’d seen of it.

Thor lifted Mjolnir, ready to fight, but Hlora got him first. His club smacked Thor into the ground, there was a crack somewhere, and Thor had probably broken something, but he didn’t care. He flung Mjolnir at Hlora, but the giant smacked the uru hammer away with his club as though it were a paperweight.

Thor dodged the next swat, catching Mjolnir in his hand and flying up to strike Hlora in the face. For a geyser, he was one heck of a good fighter, Thor would give him props for that. Hlora managed to intercept his flight up and smack him back down again. Thor could hear laughter and boos and gasps all at once. He groaned in the little crater he’d made in the ground upon his fall. He looked up and his eyes, somehow by chance, met Loki’s. Huh, they sure hadn’t had as many fights since that night… Thor still remembered how scared he’d looked, how Thor had thoroughly disapproved of Laufey’s method of entrapping Hlora. Thor got up.

It was one thing battling nameless criminals on a quarterly-or-so basis, it was another thing entirely when you were not only battling someone you didn’t know, but the criminal in question had done the unspeakable to someone whom you **_did_** know, whether you liked them or not (and in this case, Thor most definitely did **_not_** like Loki, though he did pity him slightly). 

Thor summoned a big bolt of lightning, and flung Mjolnir again. Mjolnir went right through Hlora’s stomach, leaving a big hole in it. Within moments the giant had fallen. Thor left him there to die. It was… satisfying. Oddly satisfying. He looked up for Loki, and smiled at the look on Loki’s face. He’d done the right thing, he knew he had.

.

“I’m sorry.” Thor said, after ambushing Loki on his way out of dinner.

Loki, who hadn’t expected anyone, let alone Thor to follow him, because he was on his way to the library which at this point was his unofficial second-bedroom.

“What for?” Loki didn’t turn around to look at him, which Thor thought was a bit ridiculous in all honesty, because here Thor was trying to apologise for not ignoring Laufey’s orders to stand back that night (fun fact: they’d gotten there a full minute before intervening) and Loki, the immature brat that he was, wouldn’t even turn to look at him. 

Thor moved in front of Loki to force them to be face-to-face. “I am sorry about what your father did to you that night.”

“Why? You are not my father, it was not **_your_** plan for-for that to happen.”

“Nevertheless, it should not have happened.”

Loki was silent for a while, and Thor prepared to go. “Thank you- uh, by the way, for Thrymheimr.”

“Don’t mention it.” Thor walked away. Whoo, there went **_his_** guilty conscience!

.

Some of the animosity between Thor and Loki died down after that night. **_Some_** of it. As in Loki was once more comfortable with looking Thor in the eyes, and had resumed his Trickster ways by dyeing all of Thor’s loincloths pink. Because that- **_that_** is what Tricksters do. Thor had resumed sending lightning Loki’s way and causing rain showers whenever Loki went out as retaliation for these pranks.

All was good and normal between the pair up until the next Summit of Leaders, which Laufey demanded Loki to be in attendance for because Loki was ‘of age’ and not at all because he was probably trying to see if he could secure allyship through marriage not to Gymir, but probably to some Elven prince. Norns his father was transparent.

Loki sat in the chair and noticed that Asgard had brought someone new to the meeting. Oh, that must be Hoder, their crown prince. Loki analysed the boy, mentally comparing him to his brother. Blond he may be, but Thor was much more muscular. Hmm, maybe being raised on Jotunheimr wasn’t all that bad for Asgard’s ex-heir. Hoder was supposedly the most beautiful man in all the Nine, but Loki figured he could make up his own damned mind about that. He had blue eyes, like Thor, but lighter and happier. Thor’s were dark and stormy, like thunderclouds bringing about a monsoon. Loki’d heard rumours that this son of Odin was blind. He couldn’t wait to test that out.

Odin spent the majority of the meeting glaring at Laufey. Laufey paid him no mind. Loki could only imagine that it was because he wanted his son back. Loki liked to think Laufey would have hated Odin had he stolen Helblindi from him. Then again, he wasn’t so sure that his father felt ‘love’.

When they got back, Loki made the casual remark to Thor that he’d seen his brother, and Thor’s face went stony and he glared at Loki. “You stay away from him.” Thor had ordered. 

In the middle of the night, however, Thor seemed to have changed his tune, because he crept into Loki’s room.

“Are you here to kill me then?” Loki asked, eying Mjolnir warily.

“Maybe.” Thor confessed. He had certainly felt his old hatred for Loki flare up when the topic of his brother was mentioned. “My brother…”

“ ** _Hoder_** … ah, have you come to enquire about him?” Loki sat up. Taking Thor’s silence for a nodded yes, given the dark they were in, Loki continued. “Uh, well, he’s your brother, I guess. He was probably born after the war, I figure, he’s quite young.”

“What does he look like?”

“Well, he’s definitely not as strong as you. Uhh, I believe someone once mentioned to me that he was **_blind_**.” Loki shrugged. “Other than that I’d say you two look pretty similar.” Loki didn’t mention the bit about their eyes, he figured that it was irrelevant.

Loki couldn’t see Thor, but he could tell that the big bloody animal was nodding along. “Did you see anyone else?”

“Your father.” Why was Loki disclosing all of this information to his sworn rival? “He misses you, I guess.” Thor seemed to realise how awkward this whole situation was, because without thanking Loki or saying goodbye, he crawled out of the room and closed the door behind him, leaving Loki to fall back asleep.

.

Loki was out in the training yard, getting his ass kicked by his brother, Byleistr, who was a big mean bully that never let Loki win. 

“If you used your height to duck between his legs, scramble up him, and then push from the top, you’d probably win.” A voice drawled. What the fuck was Thor doing, watching Loki’s fight like he was welcome here?

“I don’t remember asking for your advice.”

Thor shrugged. “If you want to keep losing, then go ahead, it’s your prerogative.”

And Loki did keep trying it his way, and he did keep losing. Eventually, Thor seemed to lose interest and he left.

“Tired yet, brother?” Byleistr asked, the smug fuck having had barely broken a sweat. Apparently ‘backhand your vertically impaired sibling into the snow’ was his new low-effort fighting style. Pff, **_amateur_**.

“One… one more.” Loki panted. He had nothing to lose, and Thor wasn’t around, so why **_not_** give Thor’s manoeuvre a try, if anything just to make fun of him at dinner when he mentioned that it didn’t work.

“Alright…” Byleistr made a mental note of Loki’s condition. He was fairly tired in the morning, he was sure, so if he brought him back with barely any bruises, he wouldn’t have to face Helblindi’s wrath, because those were probably already there before he even took Loki out. Can’t break what was already broken! “Aaand, go!”

Loki ran at his brother once more, Byleistr made to swat him into the snow, as he’d done thirty-two times before in the day. Loki barrel-rolled under Byleistr’s legs, and while his brother made squirmy-hands and tried to catch him, before turning around to see if Loki was behind him, Loki climbed up his back. With a great grunt, Loki gave a jump at approximately 45 degrees to the vertical on Byleistr’s shoulders. With a confused sound, Byleistr took his turn to fall over into the snow. Loki locked his arms around his brother’s neck, holding him there. “ ** _Dead_**.” Loki whispered.

Loki refused to ever tell Thor about this.

A slow clap erupted from the sidelines. Loki turned to face the clapper.

Fuck.

**_Thor_**.

.

Loki was grumpy all throughout dinner as Byleistr told the tale of how Loki toppled him over while they’d sparred (with embellishments, of course. No longer was Byleistr in his smallest form, no, he was thirty feet tall… because of **_course_** that made sense). Jarnsaxa kept rolling his eyes, Thor kept looking at Loki, challenging him to meet his gaze, but Loki kept refusing to do so.

“You know, a ‘thank you’ would be polite.”

“You know it’s not polite to ask for one.” Loki rebutted as they walked back to their respective rooms. The staircases that led to their wings conjoined at one common point on the ground floor, and that was where they were headed.

“That doesn’t sound like gratitude.”

“That’s because it’s not.”

“Fine, if you want to pretend that you thought of that all on your own.” Thor shrugged and added a bit of pace to his walk. Grr.

“Wait.” Loki said, walking a bit faster himself. “Why did you even help me?”

“It is in my nature to pity the weak.”

“Har har.”

“Why does it matter why I helped? What do you want me to say? I train everyday, I happened to notice you getting your arse kicked, I stepped in. There you go.”

Loki shook his head. “I don’t get you. One day you want to kill me, the next you’re helping me fight my brother, **_why_**?”

Thor shrugged. “I don’t know myself. I guess I’m like a predator with my prey- as in I like to play with you. It makes the kill all the more fun in the end.”

“That’s sick.”

“That’s **_nature_**.”

“Alright then, **_predator_** , why do you even want to kill me in the first place?”

Thor went quiet, and for a moment Loki was certain that a brush of ice so cold it made his blood freeze had washed over him, which was impossible given that Thor was not a Jotunn and thus did not possess such capabilities.

“That is none of your concern, son of my enemy.” And then Thor went up his flight of stairs, which was to the right, and Loki was left alone staring at his flight of stairs to the left sullenly. Wait, why sullenly? He shook his head and climbed the stairs.

.

To the next party, which was held in Thor’s honour (Laufey really _was_ trying to win the man over), Loki wore a new type of garment.

He couldn’t deny that the last party had scarred him. This new skirt was like a shendyt, but trailed down to his ankles, like the types of skirts they wore in the west (they tended to cover up a bit more there due to bugs). It was made of a lighter, softer material. It was gold and green- Loki thought he looked a bit like a peacock- his tailor had handed it to him ecstatically. There were emeralds adorning the bottom hem of the skirt. It was it a pretty skirt, he’d give him that.

Loki avoided Laufey the entire party, opting instead to glue himself to Byleistr (Helblindi was greeting guests with Laufey). Byleistr did not know of what had happened- nobody in their family other than Laufey did- but he was fine having his little brother tag along… for about the first hour. Then he started flirting with one of Fala’s sons, and Loki was all alone again.

He spied his father and made sure to move away from him.

“Nice skirt.” Thor commented. Loki spun around. He was getting really sick of this whole ‘talkative’ Thor. He missed the good old days where they mostly ignored each other and then once in a while said something nasty and tried to kill each other.

“Thanks.” Was there some sort of custom here? Was he supposed to compliment Thor back? “Er, nice… uh… shoes.” His heart wasn’t into it, and not even his silver tongue could save him from that embarrassing flop.

Thor shook his head. “I’m just used to your shendyt.”

“Well, _yes_ , it’s the typical attire of Utgard. Having a pleasant 1440th?”

“Indeed. Hiding from your father?”

Loki stiffened. “I do not know why that would concern you.” But Thor waved his hands, signalling that he meant no disrespect.

“Your father… is an arse. A complete and utter arse.” Thor said.

“Realising this now are you?” Thor had always known, but he kept that to himself. “And what’s this with you? This whole new change of behaviour?” 

Thor shrugged. “Guilt, I guess… that night, uhm, that night that a Hlora almost uh, raped you… uhm, your father actually got there a minute before intervening, and I’d know that because the guards and I were with him and-”

“And now you feel guilty about it, do you?” Loki grinned mockingly at a him with shark-like teeth. “You shouldn’t. Laufey always gets his way, who knows what he’d have done to silence you. And I guess I was never in any **_real_** danger, he wouldn’t be able to sell me for a high enough bridal price if I were deflowered.”

Thor shook his head. “Thanks, I guess.”

“Where’s your gaggle of Frost Bitches?” Loki frowned, looking around, confused. Usually they followed Thor everywhere.

“Managed to dodge ‘em.”

“ ** _Why_**?”

“Oh, let’s just say that two of them have it in their heads that I’m going to marry them…”

“I see.” Frost Bitches could be intense when they thought someone was going to marry them. Stereotypically it was Frost Studs who fought over Frost Bitches, but that stereotype only existed because the older generation didn’t know just how vicious Frost Bitches could be. Loki remembered one instance when he was younger where a Frost Bitch was executed (not Executed, because not everybody was Executed, only the ones Laufey deemed worthy of watching fight) for bashing his lover’s baby with another Frost Bitch to death. It was a cruel, cruel world sometimes. Deep down Loki had to wonder if Jarnsaxa would do that if someone other than him wound up with Thor… maybe. “Well, I’ve made my presence known. I’m going to go retire for the night. You might be able to get away with doing the same, provided my father’s had enough to drink for the night.” Loki slipped off. Moments later he heard footsteps behind him. It seemed like the Oaf was following his advice and going to his room. Hmm, maybe not so much of an Oaf after all.

.

As with all things that happened in life: once a celebrity started doing something, everybody else followed.

Loki had had no idea of the sway he had over other people, but at the next party every other Frost Bitch was wearing a long, ankle-length skirt. Interesting.

“I’ll never understand why you call yourself ‘Frost Bitches’ and use ‘she’ as an insult.” Thor had remarked when they’d accidentally met on the staircase on their way to the Ballroom.

“It’s likely that we do not in fact call ourselves whatever you are hearing. The Allspeak is supposed to translate things for you into words that you are familiar with and can understand. Though you have lived most of your life on Jotunheimr, your mother tongue is still As.” Loki shrugged.

“But we have an **_actual_** insult for woman-like men, we call them ‘ ** _ergi’_**.”

“We have that word too, I suppose our other insult is a little less harsh than that though. _Ergi_ carries serious connotations, it implies that someone is also untrustworthy or unscrupulous, whereas ‘she’ just means one that plays a passive roll in sex, which of course in our testosterone-driven wasteland is an insult.” Loki could not deny that he’d had his own internalised prejudices about those who went by ‘she’ growing up, but was proud to say that upon some self-reflection and after a few Summits, he was well past that. “I’m sure Asgard was somewhat similar.”

To Loki’s absolute surprise, instead of doubling down on Asgard’s fantasticness or getting angry, Thor just said “Mehhh, in some regards. My mother certainly had a role to play in the progression of women’s rights.”

Loki nodded. The Ballroom’s doors were open, and the two stepped into the opulence that was Yuletide. 

The Grand Jotunheimr Choir sang Merry Yuletide For All as they ate the traditional Jotunheimr Yuletide dish of Smoked Salmon and Pork Chops. The Jotnar didn’t really care much for how they paired their meat, only that they got to eat it.

Gymir had greeted Loki earlier, telling him that he’d missed him at the last party. He’d sat himself right next to Loki at dinner. Evidently the news of Hlora’s Execution had not been enough to put him off. Or maybe they had conspired- Laufey and Gymir. Gymir actually **_had_** heirs, so even if he was killed, Laufey would not be able to seize his lands and men as he had done with Hlora’s fields.

After dinner, a round of dancing started. Gymir forced Loki to dance with him, and Loki knew that he had to go along with it, because if he so much as **_dared_** to appear to insult Gymir, Laufey would wring his neck, whether or not Loki was talking to his father would be completely irrelevant. 

Loki let himself essentially get pulled around the dance floor by a semi-drunk Gymir. The man had his hand around Loki’s hip as he dragged him about, and Loki hated every single second of it. When the dancing was over, Gymir walked around with Loki in an odd fashion. 

Thor was sipping some good old fashioned rum and recounting the story of how he’d slain Hlora, when he noticed Loki out of the corner of his eye. He was with Gymir, who was leading him towards- oh crap, oh **_crap crap_** **_crap_ ** ! Thor stood up, to the dismay of his gaggle, and raced to where Loki and Gymir walking, surrounded by some gossiping Jotnar who were very well aware ofwhat was about to happen, judging by the snickers floating around.

Before Gymir, the lumbering creep, got Loki under the mistletoe, Thor gave the giant one big, huge shove, pushing him out and over to the side. Though many gasped, it rang out as though it had been only one, sole giant. Thor looked at Loki confused, then seemed to realise what had just happened and blushed.

So now they were under the mistletoe. Thor backed away, but one rowdy giant pushed him forwards. “You know the rules.” The man huffed.

Indeed. Indeed Thor **_did_** know the rules. Sucking in a big gulp of air, he turned to Loki who looked just as not-into-this as Thor felt. Thor bent down and pecked Loki on the lips, ushering in a raucous applause from the crowd. **_Pervs_**.

“I’m sorry.” Thor started. Loki shook his head, signalling that it was okay…

And then Laufey happened.

.

Gymir’s protestations had not been taken lightly, Laufey was beyond furious. He needed **_someone_** to punish…

But of course it could not be his Executioner, so Loki found himself in the dungeons, shackled to a pole in the back left corner of a cell with only morsels to eat for three days. **_Fab_**. Urgh, Thor should have just let him kiss that slimy, old git. It would have led to fewer repercussions…

Or would it have? Who’s to say that, the way that things were going, Gymir wouldn’t have tried pulling the same stunt that Hlora had? He shook his head. He wondered what the repercussions would be if he just skipped the next party. Would Laufey even notice? Probably, if Gymir complained.

Well, he got to test that at the New Years party. Loki stayed in his room the entire night. Eventually the dreaded knock came.

“Come in!” He groaned, expecting one of his father’s servants to be there to summon him (his father himself would never waste his time in such a fashion).

Thor walked in. Huh, that was odd. He hadn’t seen Thor since that horribly awkward kiss they’d been forced into because of fucking mistletoe.

“Thor, why are you here?” Loki asked.

“I was wondering where you were. You know, it’s only a matter of time before Laufey realises you’re not at the party.”

“Yeah? Well let him jail me again for all I care.” Loki shrugged. “I don’t want Gymir’s dirty old hands all over me… again.”

“Yeah, I can understand that.” Loki raised a brow. “Let’s just say that some of the Frost Bitches your father has thrown my way over the years haven’t always been, uh, age appropriate.”

Loki gave a gasp. “You slept with Widow-Gjalp, didn’t you? Ew, gross! He’s like 15034020 years old!” That was older than **_Laufey_**!

“It wasn’t all that bad, he was very nice, I just wasn’t into him.” Well yeah, Widow-Gjalp was nearing the end of his life. He’d exhausted all of his taller heights, he’d probably be dead before Loki was of age.

Loki shook his head, laughing. “It seems that I’m not the only one my father shoves unwanted sexual advancers upon.”

“It would seem so.” Thor sat down on the bed.

“Won’t my father miss **_you_**?” Loki pointed out.

“He’ll probably think I’ve gone off to shack up with someone from my gaggle. It’s not like he knows or cares for their names, so he won’t notice them all looking for me.”

“But what if one of them asks him where you’ve gone?”

“And who would have the balls to do that? **_Jarnsaxa_**?” Thor raised a brow.

“Fair point.” Loki exhaled, slumping back on his bed. “You reek of alcohol.”

“It’s my second hobby.”

“I miss when you used to ignore me.” Loki said, in a self-pitying tone. Thor rolled his eyes, flopping back onto the bed too.

“You’ve got one heck of a sense of wit.” Thor stumbled over his words. “It is a shame that it was Laufey who won the war. My mother would have liked you.” Thor’s tone was one of mourning, and Loki genuinely felt his pain at how things had worked out for a second then. He shook his head. His life sucked to some extent… but his brothers made everything worth it, and deep down he’d always know that. Loki knew that if _he_ had been taken, he would have hated Asgard and all of its people just… just as much as Thor hated Jotunheimr. Maybe that’s why Thor wanted to kill him? (Though he doubted the conviction of that statement as of late).

“That would truly be some ‘what if’,” Loki chose to say, to placate the drunk mess. Thor propped himself up on his elbows.

“Why do you take it all? Everything that Laufey does to you?”

“Because I love my brothers.” Loki answered truthfully.

A resigned look crossed Thor’s face. Oh right, Thor had never met his brother, had he? Now Loki felt bad. 

“Well, what about you?” Loki asked. “I mean, you’re so strong, if you **_could_** manage to escape to Asgard then there’s no way that Laufey would be able to defeat Asgard in war again.” Loki cursed himself for trying too hard to lift Thor’s spirits, even though it seemed to work a bit.

“It’s too much of a risk. And as you said- ‘ ** _if'_** I make it back.” Thor shook his head. “There’s too much risk involved. And even then, any war fought on my behalf costs Asgard bucketloads of sons.”

Loki nodded. He raked his eyes over Thor, who was lazily scratching his back, analysing him. Was this all some ruse? Some false aura of amicability designed to lull Loki into a false sense of calm for Thor to trap him and kill him? He thought back to Thor’s comment about hunters playing with their prey. Loki’d known a wolf in his younger days, who had loved to hunt worms and then not eat them and just leave them there, broken and dead. He knew, from his own experience with his father, how cruel nature could be. But then Thor looked up at him, and Loki realised his mistake:

Hot tempered and violent? Yes. Cold and calculating? Not quite. Loki hummed shifting himself on the bed. He could get up and go, avoid a whole entire scene, or he could just lay here and relax. Hmmm, what to pick, what to pick? He went full-on spread-eagled.

“Ow!” Thor complained.

Loki’s eyes popped open. “Oh, I’m sorry.”

Thor shook his head, moving so that his head was on one of the other pillows (the bed was Jotunn-sized. Loki and Thor were not). After a while, the nice, cool, quiet ended. Thor got up, clumsily. “I’ve got to go.” He said, eyes drooping. It was late, Loki couldn’t blame him. Loki got up too so that he could lock his door once Thor left.

“Alright. Goodnight Thor.” Loki told Thor as the warrior exited the door.

“G’night.”

.

His first encounter with Jarnsaxa post-Yuletide was a stern glare. Evidently his cousin had discovered that Loki and Thor had kissed. In public. Jarnsaxa ate his toast with righteous fury. Loki was mildly concerned that he himself found the situation more amusing than concerning.

One look at his father told Loki all that he needed to know. His father **_had_** indeed noticed his absence, according to those burning red eyes glaring daggers into Loki.

“My office. After breakfast.” Laufey had spat.

Loki briefly locked eyes with Helblindi’s, and he let out a fearful breath as he nodded in recognition of Laufey’s order.

.

“How dare you?” Laufey banged his fists loudly against his desk. “Have you **_any_** idea how much you embarrassed me last night?!”

Loki stayed silent, in accordance with his vow. He was not scared of his father, he wasn’t. He’d been on the receiving end of Laufey’s fury for many centuries now. What was Laufey going to do? **_Slap him_**? Been there, done that. When Loki was a child it sometimes left bruises, depending on how hard Laufey hit, but as he’d grown it became less common for them to appear. Specifically on his left side ( ** _his_** left, not an observer’s).

“Answer me!” Laufey roared. He’d never seen his father so angry. Loki did not know if it was bravery or foolishness (but then, those two were really one the same).

Loki had never been slapped so hard in his life. The blow was unexpected, he wobbled at first, before his centre of gravity surpassed his one planted foot on the ground, and he ultimately lost balance and fell. He only hated it because of the noise he’d made on the fall. Not enough sound to be a full word, but enough to satisfy Laufey’s ego.

“Get out!” Laufey boomed. Loki scrambled up and exited the room, heart pounding. For the first time in centuries, Loki was certain that one of his father’s slaps would leave a bruise. Not that Loki would let him have the satisfaction of watching it blossom. Loki would use seidr if it meant scorning Laufey.

.

“What happened?” Thor asked, alarmed, his voice unnervingly even, as though he had no true emotions about _this_. He had been on his way to grab Storm Breaker for training (hitting targets- and to be honest, whilst Mjolnir was his life, blood, _and_ soul, sometimes he missed his OG blade) when he ran into Loki on their staircase. Before Loki could get a word out, Thor was frowning and invading his personal space, touching Loki’s face. 

“Ow!” Loki snapped. The area was _sensitive_. Thor drew back.

“Laufey did this, didn’t he.” Thor bit his lip. It wasn’t a question, it was a statement. “Do you have any aloe in your your room?”

“Aloe?”

“It’s a herb meant to heal wounds.”

“No, but the bruise will die down on its own, I’m sure.” Thor looked sceptical.

“Maybe see a nurse?”

“No, Thor! Are you crazy!? Do you have _any_ idea how incendiary court gossip is?”

“Then come to my room, I’ll give you some. At the very least it’s important for you to clean your wounds, I’ve got a whole kit.” Thor grabbed Loki’s wrist, he was not going to take no for an answer. Reluctantly, Loki followed along.

In truth, while he’d visited Thor’s wings a good many times to taunt him, he’d never entered the Thunderer’s chambers. Loki wrinkled his nose as Thor opened the door. It smelled different in here. Thor’s room was a mess, and Thor was completely unapologetic about it and- was that a half-eaten pizza on the floor? **_EW_**!

Thor hopped over to his bedside cabinet and picked up the aloe. Loki flicked his fingers and Thor’s room was habitable. Thor blinked, looking around. “Not a bad trick.”

“It’s not a ‘trick’, Thor, it’s a very sophisticated magical art.” Thor was totally ignoring him in favour of squeezing out some drops of aloe. Thor beckoned Loki over and applied a rather generous pap of aloe over Loki’s swollen skin. Loki realised how close Thor was to him and blushed at the contact. Why was he blushing? This was ridiculous. Thor was being a good frenemy, and here Loki was making something out of it. Hmmm, he smelled nice. Thor’s hand re-ran over an area that he’d already covered, and then another. Loki could swear that he didn’t need this much gel, he opened his eyes and looked into Thor’s. Thor’s eyes flew to the other side, and he took a quick step back.

“We shouldn’t be doing this.” Thor said. Loki bit his lip to refrain from saying something dumb.

“Thanks for the aloe.”

“No problem.” Loki left the room, his heart racing.

.

_We shouldn’t be doing this_. Thor had said that. Interesting, clearly Loki wasn’t the only one who thought there was… _something_ there. Nevertheless, Thor was right. Loki knew that Thor was right deep down, he reasoned, for if Loki **_truly_** wanted something with Thor then nothing would stop him from getting it. After all, Loki always got what he wanted.

And besides, Loki’s future plans all centred around leaving Jotunheimr. He could never take Thor with him, not just for fear of Thor killing him, but because that would put a target on his back. His father may not care for Loki per se, but Thor? That was a whole other story.

And besides, Thor and Loki were, at their core, enemies. He did not know _why_ Thor’s demeanour towards him had changed so much in the past few weeks… well, now he had a **_suspicion_** , he supposed, but he was certain that it was temporary.

He was wasting too much time entertaining silly thoughts about Thor, Loki got up. A walk would do him good. He got up and left his room, running into Helblindi along the way.

“Brother, are you well?” Helblindi inquired.

“Never better.” Loki had used his seidr to hide the bruise, Helblindi had no reason to believe that Loki was anything other than dandy.

“Father was so angry this morning and last night.” Helblindi shook his head. “You shouldn’t do that again.”

“I had to at least try. None of us had ever tested it before. I probably would have gotten away with it too if it weren’t for Gymir.”

“That’s true. Nevertheless, it was a stupid risk to take.”

“I just didn’t want his hands on me all night.”

“I don’t blame you, take solace in the knowledge that he will die well before you. Father wants to wage a war against the Nine, maybe if Gymir is leading his men through Fort Wildes he might be snuffed out by, say, a Wilderman.” No need, Loki didn’t intend on marrying Gymir **_period_** , still, no harm entertaining his brother.

“Why would father go through Fort Wildes though?”

“It’s the only way into Musspelheim that we know of. And he’d send Gymir there because his land is the closest.”

“What if father chooses to exclude Gymir from the war entirely? Only take his men.”

“Well, there’s a lot of things that can happen in the rugged North West, Little Loki. Take comfort in that.”

“And how am I to be so unsure that whatever may harm him will not do the same to me?”

“You have seidr, Little Loki.” Helblindi ruffled his hair affectionately. It would have been cute if it didn’t hurt so much on account of Helblindi being like 8 times as strong as Loki. Loki clutched his head in pain, trying to stop the room from spinning. “Don’t miss another party.”

“I have no intention of doing such a thing.” Loki swore. Because Loki always kept his word. Always.

.

“Not **_again_**.” Thor groaned. “You think that Laufey’s going to not notice your absence _again?”_ It had been by luck that Thor had caught Loki on his way out of the party.

“I have a plan.”

“And **_I’m_** out of Aloe, so when he catches you, because he will, you're going to have to go to the Healer’s.”

Loki followed Thor back into the hall reluctantly, flipping a hand to vanish the double he'd made. In truth he'd taken a bit of a gamble, Loki couldn't create a corporeal double, if anybody touched it it would fade. Thor watched the double disappear with vague interest in his eyes, and to think that Thor had mocked his seidr all these years.

“Thor!” It was the gaggle. Oh Norns. And Loki, mind you, months later was still gaggle-enemy-number-one for that **_peck_** Thor had given him in public. _It wasn’t even a proper fucking kiss_! Loki slipped away before someone could ‘accidentally’ step on him and watched ~~in~~ ~~ slight envy  ~~ as his cousin, Jarnsaxa, grabbed Thor’s arm and draped it around himself. The real kicker was that Loki was **_certain_** Laufey would approve of their match. Laufey’s prized nephew and his prized warrior, what a power couple they’d make… not that Loki cared, of course. He moved on, working the room, greeting everyone, ensuring that he’d have an alibi.

One of the waitstaff, a man with short-cropped black hair, offered Loki a cocktail. Loki didn’t think it was a good idea. _In truth_ he wasn’t much of a drinker, he only really took drinks when he was around Gymir because he didn’t want to think too long and hard about the man  ~~ or what his obligations towards him would be once they were married ~~ . He declined in a manner that was surprisingly polite (he didn’t want to draw Laufey’s attention to him) and wandered away once more.

He was playing a game of dodge Gymir now. He had spied the older giant regaling a party of fellow older-giants with tales of a war Loki would not be old enough to know of. Good, let him stay distracted. Loki puffed out his chest and walked around, like a good prince ought to. He spied his mother and Laufey at the south entryway greeting people. Loki knew, deep down, that Laufey did not wish to be in the presence of Farbauti. He knew that if Laufey _were_ to ever find a convenient way to let Farbauti die, then Laufey would jump upon it. Laufey would probably marry a younger Frost Bitch and get right back to the baby making. The worst part was that Loki was not entirely sure how he’d feel about that.

Farbauti was his mother, the very thought of Laufey wanting him dead and wanting to marry someone new should **_incense_** Loki… but it didn’t. Maybe it was because he’d never really had a relationship with his mother. ~~ Maybe it was because deep down he knew he’d feel better without Farbauti’s presence in the castle. ~~

Loki walked around aimlessly, nobody to talk to, as was the norm. He’d been coming to these things for years, and still nobody noteworthy had caught his interest. Why should he lower himself to make friends with these people? None of them were particularly noteworthy, at least not in anything he cared about. How he wished this was Vanaheimr, from the Summit he’d been dragged to he could tell that those were an interesting group. There was one coming up in a few weeks, he’d get to see Ran then. 

Ran was the wife of the giant Ægir. By Jotunn law, she was not allowed to reside in Jotunheimr, as she was not a Jotunn (an exception had been made for Thor, because he was 1/4 Jotunn), and through biology Ægir was unable to live _off_ of Jotunheimr. She was almost 2000000 years old, and she was **_kickass_** , which was rather surprising given that she was an **_actual_** woman. Maybe she was an exception, or maybe Loki had found another way in which Jotunn society was full-out wrong about something. Whatever the case, she had promised to show him around her underwater castle on Vanaheim one day in the future. He hoped that Helblindi would also change **_that_** aspect of Jotunn law upon becoming King. It was wrong to force a husband and wife to live apart.

Loki noticed the same cropped-haired servant from before nearby offering Aruti and Gardungandr some drinks, odd. Had Loki circled the whole room entirely? He checked around. Hmm, probably, but where to go from here? For obvious reasons he couldn’t leave the room, even if it was just to go to the library (an arguably public place), there was no telling what Laufey would do if he found him to be gone. Grrr, when was dinner going to start?

“ _Loki_!” Gymir had finally found him, it seemed. Loki forced a smile onto his face and turned to face his future husband.

“Gymir.” Loki nodded his head slightly in a bow. Gymir swiped an arm around Loki’s waist and led him around to begin a conversation with him.

“I didn’t see you at the last party.” Oh Norns, make it **_end_** , Loki wrinkled his nose at the putrid smell of ale on Gymir’s breath. Nasty older Jotnar, always drinking that stuff.

“I was feeling a bit unwell. My brother had injured me while sparring at it seemed that I’d miscalculated the depth of the wound, because I didn’t wash it and it got infected.

“Oh dear,” Gymir sounded sympathetic. “But you’re better now?”

“Yes. We healed the wound with rocks and everything’s much better.”

“I’m glad to hear it. It was such a travesty to have to go an entire party without your pretty face.”

“I missed you too, old friend.” Gymir smiled. “Come, let me introduce you to my friends. You’ll like them, I think.”

And that was how Loki met: Hastigi, Hlöi, Svasudr, Svivor and Vindr. Norns they were so **_boring_**! And also, Hastigi was a pervert, so Loki was unsurprised to learn he was Gymir’s **_oldest_** friend. Urgh, sometimes being a pretty-piece-of-eye-candy was **_hard_** , it wasn’t like Loki **_chose_** to be Laufey’s show-pony. The one he could use to negotiate peace deals with, etc.

Loki glanced around the room and noticed Thor’s eye on him. Why- oh. Loki’s fists clenched. Was the blond idiot worried about- Loki bit his lip in anger as Hlöi went on and on about the hunt for some fabled beast called ‘Jormungandr’. How did the man ever hope to even find it? Wasn’t it rumoured to reside on _Midgard?_

And fuck Thor for looking at Loki like he was helpless. Had Laufey not intervened that night, had Hlora managed to rape Loki, Loki would have been **_fine_**! He’d have gotten over it soon enough. Who was Thor to be worrying about him? FUCK HIM!

“A drink, sir?” That same servant came by.

“No thank you.” Loki said, sourly.

“Oh come on, Loki, have one!” Gymir insisted, grabbing two and holding one to Loki’s lips. Loki knew from observations of older Jotnar in the court that Gymir would not take ‘no’ for an answer, that Loki would need a better reason than just not wanting to drink tonight. 

I’m pregnant? No, Laufey would actually kill him. Err… I need to drive home after- scratch that. I already had three and I’m not feeling well? Gymir had been with him half an hour, he’d say that Loki’d had time enough. “I’m allergic to raspberries.” Loki said, apologetically. Judging by the colour of the drink, it likely contained them. “I get hives and start to choke.”

“That is unfortunate.” Gymir chugged both glasses down and burped. “Excuse me, I must use the restroom.” Loki was merely grateful that the man did not ask him to attend them with him. The worst part was that compared to Hlora, Gymir was a gentleman. On the plus side, Loki would be marrying neither of them.

Loki fanned himself a bit. With summer coming, the temperature was beginning to become unreasonably hot. It had never, to Loki’s knowledge, been this hot on Jotunheimr before. Usually it hit -17*C in the summer, but it was **_easily_** -10*C this year. Jotnar could, technically, live well above 30*C, but they’d sweat quite a bit, and Loki currently felt like he himself was on the verge of doing so. It must be all of these people in the chambers too, Loki slipped out of the room, heading down the corridor. There. He’d been seen. His father could not complain now.

“Loki.” Loki exhaled in relief, for he knew that to be Thor’s voice. “Are you alright?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

“You ran out of there as soon as Gymir was out of sight.” 

“I needed some air, Thor. Relax, not all men are like Hlora.” Loki rolled his eyes. “You can go back inside.” Loki’s eyes flicked to the side. It was that same- he grimaced.

“My liege, can I offer you a drink of iced yak’s milk?” The man bowed.

“Certainly.” Loki picked one of the cups up and the rest of them turned into snakes. The Jotunn shrieked, dropping the platter which turned back into milk, and ran back into the hall, no doubt with the intend to go and crib to Laufey.

“ _Loki_.” Thor admonished, but where the last time Loki’d done this (because Loki had, at times, pulled this trick at dinner when Laufey was unavailable and somebody had given him a distasteful look [most Jotnar did not appreciate seidr]) Thor had scolded him for being a spoilt brat, this time it seemed to be playful amusement. Seriously, where the fuck had _his_ Thor gone- who was this new one? Who was this Thor who acted almost as though they were friends? Was he still at Thrym’s? “Such a waste of perfectly good yak’s milk…”

“He’s been following me all night.” More important, where had **_Loki_** gone and died? Why was he divulging such sensitive information to someone, let alone **_Thor_**? "One of my father’s spies, no doubt. He deserved it.”

"Are you not worried that he will tell Laufey about this?”

“Oh, I’m **_counting_** on it.”

“… I still don’t have any more aloe…”

.

This one Loki didn’t need to hide. Not all slaps left bruises, and it seemed that Laufey was **_much_** less angry this time. In truth, he would guess that his father was entirely disinterested in the servant’s wellbeing and more angry at the notion of one of his sons using seidr. **_That_** was the embarrassing bit to him.

“He didn’t brutalise you too badly, I see.” Thor noted. 

“No.” Loki answered shortly. He was going to the library, it was time to learn a few decent healing spells. “What are you doing in this corridor, it leads to the library?”

Thor blushed. “Thor?” Thor blushed harder as Loki spun to face the sound of the call. From the library stood Jarnsaxa and the rest of the gaggle. What were they- no, no. Absolutely not! Thor would not desecrate his sacred place with the Insane Whore Posse… that was being mean. If Loki were to be strict on the definition of the word ‘whore’, Loki supposed that Thor probably had a higher body-count than any one person in that group. He was probably all (or most) of their firsts, and he had **_definitely_** strayed outside of the group. **_Thor_** was the whore. And it rhymed, so it had to be true.

Loki grabbed Thor by his hair and yanked him in so that they were close. “I am going to the library right now to do **_research_**. If you and your gaggle **_dare_** desecrate **_any_** of my books, I will see to it that you all suffer a slow and painful death at my hands. Proceed at your own risk, Thunder God.” And then Loki shoved Thor away like the trash that he was (hmm, seemed a bit harsh), and walked in past the gawking gaggle so that he could find the books he needed.

Thor, who was still recovering from the closeness of that moment (and from, er, an ill-gotten effect of being momentarily dominated) straightened himself and walked through the doors of the library. What did Loki think was going to happen, an **_orgy_**? Hmm… didn’t sound so bad, really.

“Thor, hey.” Jarnsaxa wrapped an arm around Thor’s broad shoulders. Jarnsaxa was, by all accounts, **_hot_**. While Thor didn’t think highly of the Jotnar, he had to admit that they made decent bedmates, not that he had anything to compare them to. “What did my cousin want?”

“Oh, nothing. He just didn’t want us ‘defiling’ this place.” Thor replied, oblivious as ever. Some of his gaggle rolled their eyes, some scoffed, Jarnsaxa just pressed himself even tighter to Thor.

“What a nerd… we should totally defile this place, don’t you think?” He whispered in Thor’s ear, moving a hand down to Thor’s loincloth. Thor shook his head, reluctantly. 

“Not today, guys, sorry. Why don’t we go out to the courtyard? You could watch me spar?” The gaggle was very interested in this proposition.

.

Hours later Thor came back to the library in a bid to escape the gaggle. It was always fun entertaining them… for the first few hours. He had wagered that most of them would have gone to his room to look for him, and that none would find him here. He spied Loki deeply engrossed in a book and decided to go bother him. That seemed fun nowadays, more fun than it had been previously… also less malicious, though Thor was not willing to admit that just yet.

“You’re still here?” Thor teased.

“Bog off.”

“Nerd.”

“Not my fault you can’t read- **_hey_** , give me that back!”

“ ** _SHHHHHHHHHHHHH!_** ” The Librarian hissed.

“Hmmm, let’s see.” Thor whispered so that the librarian would not hear them. “‘ _The trick to healing a gash is to visualise a cliff and concentrate on closing that cliff, your seidr will do the rest, and the wound will be mended.’_ Well, guess I’m literate after all. What are you reading up on gashes for anyways?”

“Not that it is any of your business,” Loki began, “But I’ve decided to improve my healing spells, you know, incase you kill me.” Loki joked darkly.

“Mmm, not a bad idea. But since I can’t very well have you defending yourself.” Thor held the book away.

“Thor, give. It. **_Back_**!” Loki ordered, his voice a menacing whisper.

“Make. Me.” Thor said, through gritted teeth in a false smile. Well, not necessarily false, but definitely slightly antagonistic/competitive. 

Loki pounced onto Thor, but Thor flung him off. Loki summoned shards of ice which Thor was unable to electrocute without Mjolnir, whom he had left in the training yard (he hadn’t wanted it to slow him down as he escaped from the gaggle), so he resulted to shielding himself from with the book. He watched Loki’s expression melt into one of horror. Oh yes, Loki, you try to use your spells and ice against me and the book suffers for it.

Loki went for Thor’s legs, he knew if he could hurt them somewhat then Thor would have nowhere to run. Thor tried kicking at him, but the little minx held on **_strong_** for a weak runt. Props, kid.

Thor put the book behind him and reached down, pulling Loki off of his legs and shoving him away and onto the desk. Thor picked the book back up. “Well, guess this is mine now.” He smirked smugly over Loki. He felt a force grab him from behind (what the-) and pin him to the floor despite the fact that Loki weighed less than him. How had the runt-

“Give. Me. My. Book. Back. Thor. I’m done asking nicely.” Loki held one of his knives in one hand, his threat **_heavily_** implied. Thor needed to think of something fast. Thor leant up very quick and gave Loki a kiss on his lips, shocking him.

Thor used the opportunity to flip them over and knock Loki’s dagger away. Loki was really pretty from this angle… what was Thor doing? He looked down into those fierce eyes and sat back… and Loki then punched him hard in the face before teleporting away.

.

Stupid fucking Thor, Loki hadn’t spoken to him since the library incident. There was an Execution today. Hard to believe that it had already been a year since Hlora had almost assaulted him in the library, but here they were.

This time it was some foreign invaders. Fire demons had tried to capture their North- imbeciles. Loki could already guess that Odin had sent them this way, that the rest of the Nine was aware of their future plans of invasion and were trying to quash them whilst still possible.

Amateurs. 

Bragi came forwards. A fierce giant, related to Surtur no doubt, but the King of Muspelheim had made no claim on him, had not asked for him back when this Execution was announced, so clearly whatever their relation, Bragi was disavowed.

This was the final round, the only one people really cared about anymore. Thor vs whoever made it this far.

Lightning clapped ominously, Loki rolled his eyes. **_Showoff_**. His father’s prized possession was such a little show pony…

Loki ought to teach his father a lesson. He still wasn’t on good terms with the man- not that he had ever been.

Thor walked into the arena, full of energy, Mr. Lightning Man. He raised Mjolnir into the air and pure, white lightning fell from the sky. Thor gave a mighty jump and flung himself into the air theatrically, winking at every single member of his gaggle in turn.  **_Showoff!_ ** It only made Loki smirk harder. And as Thor aimed Mjolnir to go through Bragi’s chest, Loki cast a little charm to deflect Mjolnir. Instead of hitting the Fire Monster in the chest, it missed him entirely.

Bragi’s expression turned from one of inevitability to one of triumph. Ha! He had Thor in his grasp! Thor was startled, clearly, and so he touched down and rushed for Mjolnir. He was within a hair’s grasp of it when Bragi whacked Thor hard with his bat. Thor hit the wall (it was a circle, and circles only had one side) with a crack and stood up shakily, Mjolnir raised.

The giant breathed fire at Thor, who just barely managed to deflect it with the aid of Mjolnir. Thor rose up once more and struck his foe in the head, but Bragi was quick and cunning and used the opportunity to whack Thor down once more. The two held each other off, blocking blows and dodging the other’s powers. It was clear that Thor was winning, but it was clearly not by much. Loki smirked. One more move, just one more ‘trick’ and then he’d leave them be.

Loki made it appear that Bragi was shooting fire from his whole body. Frightened, Thor made that propeller move he liked so much in order to shield himself. Bragi, who had **_not_** sent those flames made a move for Thor. Loki let his illusion up just in time for Thor to defend himself. Except that Thor **_didn’t_** defend himself. He didn’t see it coming in time. A scream like no other erupted itself throughout the arena, and Loki found himself wondering for the first time in his life if he had gone too far.

Bragi had burned an entire hole in Thor’s arm. Loki gasped. Jarnsaxa looked about ready to dive in and save Thor, not that he’d be any help. Loki could do it- Loki was **_about_** to do it when the skies gave a huge clap, the arena was flooded in white light, and moments later the biggest boom to ever boom sounded. It was so loud that Loki thought that the world was ending, that this was it, that this was Jotunnok or whatever their version of the end of the world was supposed to be called.

Bragi lay convulsing on the ground. Thor, in **_horrible_** shape, and with an **_awfully_** injured arm made his way over and bashed Bragi’s skull in until the giant stopped moving.

Nobody was brave enough to cheer.

.

“My fault, my fault, _my fault_ … I’m such an idiot… oh I’m so sorry!” Thor’s eyes were still shut but there was an awful lot of muttering. Who could talk to themselves so much!? Thor forced one of his eyes open.

Ah, Loki. That made sense.

“Ah, he finally rejoins us.” Loki drawled sarcastically. Bitch, like I didn’t hear you just crying. Either way, Loki’s schooled expression didn’t really make up for his damp and tired eyes, nor his messed up hair. Was this how Loki looked when he worked? Because then Loki ought to work _all the time_ , damn- _inappropriate_! He reminded himself.

“What happened.” Thor asked, his throat dry.

“Bragi gave you one good bashing.” Loki said, as though it made all the sense in the world. “He burned up your arm pretty badly. I’ve been trying to fix it.”

“Laufey approves of this?”

“Laufey doesn’t know.” Ah, made sense. “Your arm’s getting better, but your muscles will be tender and sore. You might need to retrain them entirely.” Fuck.

“And why is this your fault?” Thor asked.

“What?”

“I heard you say that this is your fault.” Thor gripped Loki’s wrist tightly as he tried to leave, slippery eel. 

“I was worried about it not healing right, **_that_** was my fault, Thor.” Loki rolled his eyes, the lie slipping off his tongue like silk. “I was tired, I was frustrated- still am. I will take my leave now.” Loki yanked his arm out of Thor’s grasp.

“And get ready! Laufey postponed the Yuletide Feast to whenever you woke up!”

.

Thor’s arm hurt like Hel. He hid it though, biting his lip as Laufey paraded him about the hall, bragging about Thor’s success against the Fire Demon, which was odd because Thor had faced foes far fiercer and come out far fairer than in his fight against Bragi.

“Aches, doesn’t it?” Thor heard a voice from behind the tapestry he was leaning against. He’d **_finally_** managed to dodge Laufey. “Here,” Loki took Thor’s arm and murmured a spell which brought great relief to Thor. “I imagine that in a few days, **_with_** practice, you should be good as new. If you need pain relief until then then come and find me.”

“You’re being awfully nice about this. What happened to the Loki who cursed me to wear dresses for a month?”

“Where’s the Thor who hung me up upside down on a flagpole for it?” Loki leant in unconsciously, his usual goading nature getting the better of him, even now when he wasn’t goading Thor. “Who made it rain that night so that the winds would bash me about.”

“Where’s the little minx who transformed into a snake, only to stab me when I picked him up?”

“Where’s the boy who vowed to kill me someday? Huh?”

Thor moved back at that, neither even taking in just how close they’d been. “Trust me, he’s still here.”

“Oh? Because you had the opportunity to do so when I was to wed Thrym. It wouldn’t have been so hard for you to allow Thrym to bed me **_before_** you killed them all.”

Thor shook his head. “You were so scared…” he remembered, hand on Loki’s hip. “And I want your death to be noble, not on the end of some Jotunn’s cock, or when you whelp his pups.”

“Well then you better get a move on it, in 17 years’ time I shall be wed, the clock is ticking, Thor.” And then Loki moved away. Thor would never understand that man.

.

The next Annual Summit took place on Jotunheimr. Laufey, knowing that Odin would undeniably try to steal away Laufey’s third born… wait, that came out wrong- that Odin would undeniably try to steal away **_Thor_** had hidden the man away with Gymir. It doubled as a test to see if the man was a good ally to have in a War against the Realms. If not then there was no sense in wasting Laufey’s only runt-born on him. Might as well marry Loki off to Malekith. 

Ran was present, and as a result Ægir had also popped his head into court. It was a bit odd watching them, and Loki did not like being a ‘third wheel’, so he detached himself from their company and headed out to see if he could find companionship in anyone else.

It was by chance, truly, that the library found him Hoder, Thor’s little brother. 

“There’s a section in braille.” Loki volunteered. “I can take you to it.”

“Uh…” he could tell that the Heir to Asgard was contemplating his options very carefully. Loki didn’t have to be psychic to know that the man probably wanted information on his brother. And Loki would be happy to provide it, of course, there were no state-secrets as far as Thor was concerned. Besides, Loki also knew that Thor would want information on his family, on his mother whom Thor had once mentioned. Loki couldn’t deny that he was a bit curious about a woman whom Thor had said would have liked Loki. He was a peacock- there, he said it! “Alright. Thank you, Prince Loki.”

“The pleasure is all mine. What would you like to read?” Loki took Hoder’s hand to guide him, but the man refused and simply reached for his stick.

“It’s alright, I can find my way with my stick.”

“Ah, enchanted. That’s nice.”

“Indeed. My mother wo-…” The man went silent. Evidently he believed that he had just given away the key to Asgard’s downfall. Loki just thought that he was a bit silly was all.

“I think it’s nice that you are so comfortable with seidr.” Loki decided that the best way to get what he wanted was to give Hoder what **_he_** wanted. “You know, your brother absolutely **_loathes_** seidr. Every time I use it he gets a grumpy look on his face, so I’d just assumed that Aesir in general were against its use.”

Loki could tell from Hoder’s expression that he was very much intrigued at any knowledge of his never-seen-before brother… that felt worded wrong, uh, his never-met-before brother.

“That’s probably because you’re a man. Seidr is a womanly craft.”

“I can tell from your tone that you do not think that that is the case.”

“My father uses it.”

“Ah. Tell me, given Asgard’s proficiency in seidr and healing magic, why have your eyes never been rectified?”

“Mother says we had the technology for that once, but that after the war, with everything destroyed, it’ll take a while before anything can be done about my eyes.” Oddly, Loki felt no guilt over this. The war **_started_** with the Jotnar invading Midgard, Asgard had no duty to intervene in it, and look at what it had gotten them? A blind heir. It felt almost metaphorical.

“I am sorry to hear about that.” Loki said, nevertheless. He could tell that Hoder had a million and one questions to ask about Thor, and Loki had every intention of telling him about his long-lost brother, but first Loki had some questions of his own to ask. “I hope that Asgard repairs herself well. From what I’ve read, she was a fine kingdom back in her day.”

“Indeed.”

“So, Hoder. Any clue on what you want to read yet?”

“Not particularly, no.”

“We have some books on Asgard, if you’re curious about our knowledge of your society. Some books on ours, too. Heck- we’ve got a couple of new editions about **_Thor_**!”

“Thor?”

“Well, Executioners in general, of course.”

“Executioners?”

“Well, yes, we couldn’t exactly have your brother wasting away in the dungeons. He’s a remarkable fighter, truly. Why, do you not have executions on Asgard?”

“Yes, but they are generally private affairs, and we do not have them nearly often enough for it to warrant an Executioner. Tyr, my brother, usually carries them out.”

“Oh, you have another brother?”

“Yes, but he’s a bastard. Born before my parents ever wed.” That was untrue, from what Loki knew. Tyr was born shortly after Odin married Frigga. Three years after. Which meant that he was the product of an _affair_ , not a liaison. 

“Well, at least you had an older brother then.”

“In part, I suppose. What of you, you were lucky enough not to have your middle-brother snatched from you.”

“Of course! If anybody had tried to take Byleistr, they would have brought him back the next day, tears in their eyes as they begged us to take him back.” Loki smirked. Norns did he love his brother. Loki still wondered how Laufey had managed to miss that Loki’s trickster spirit came in large part from his older brother.

Hoder gave a surprised laugh at that. Excellent, humour was a good way to warm up your prey. “I am sorry though,” Loki continued, “That you had to live without Thor in your life. Even if he is a pig-headed git.”

“Oh?”

“Indeed. It can’t have been easy on your parents.”

“Valhalla, no! Mother **_still_** mourns her first born son, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the only reason that father agreed for the Annual Summit to be in Utgard was so that he could lay eyes upon his son.”

“Well, he won’t find Thor here. He’s with Laufey’s nephew, Kari, up north.”

“Well, that’s a shame… I kind of hoped that I would run into him myself.”

“Well, at least his absence gave you a throne.”

“I want not for a throne.” Hoder shook his head. “I would give my throne up one hundred times over to meet my brother, Thor.”

Of course you would. Loki’s fist tightened. 

.

Thor blamed his nightmare on thoughts of his family. Had he not know that they were on Jotunheimr, he likely wouldn’t have had it. He hadn’t had it in nearly a full year, dammit!

_Baby Baldr’s brains lay grey and wet and goopy on the floor, some of it smudged on the walls, as Frigga screamed in agony._

_Thor ran in with his sword. He was only about 200, the size of a Midgardian child, but like Hel was he going to let this monster that had infiltrated his home harm his mother. Moreover, he would avenge his little brother, may his soul rest in Valhalla._

_“PEACE!” Odin’s voice boomed. “PEACE! You can have my kingdom, my throne, take it all. I forfeit. Asgard surrenders!”_

And then the dream had morphed.

_It was Loki, standing there, staring at him with that stupid smirk of his._

_“Come on, Thor. What are you waiting for? It would be so easy.” Loki leaned forwards, his mouth to Thor’s ear. “You know what I think, Thor? I think that you are scared, I think that you are afraid. I think that you are too much of a coward to kill me. I think that you are going to let Baldr’s death go unavenged, because you are not a true hero, are you? No, you are a coward, a dog. That’s why your father did not fight hard enough to keep you, that is why you have been replaced by a blind child. You are_ **nothing** , _Thor Laufisthræll. You are naught but the dirt under Laufey’s feet, and when he is done with you- and he will be-_ **I** _shall be the one to end you, to pay you back for your worthlessness.”_

Thor woke up, heart thumping, soundless. 

Well, that was the most Loki-experience he’d had in the last year, he supposed. Where had it come from, though? It couldn’t be some deep-hidden fear, he had never feared his worth to Laufey, simply because he did not care for Laufey at all. And he was not afraid of Loki killing him because, as Loki said, Thor was going to do it sometime between the present and whenever it was that Loki was slated to be married to Gymir, the man whose house he was staying in.

Thor got up, deciding to have a walk around his wing. His arm still pained dreadfully, him having to postpone healing sessions with Loki due to the Annual Summit. What a weird system of ruling it was, to have three mass gatherings (The Summer and Winter Summits too) a year, when they could quite easily have just stuck to one.

It was expansive, Thor admitted. For a Lord, this castle was quite large. Ornate too, well-decorated for a single man, but then Thor had also met Gymir’s brother and his spouse at dinner. Gymir’s brother-in-law had probably helped to decorate this abode. It was too modern for it to have been left over from Gymir’s mother’s time.

Thor looked at the big fancy chandelier in his quarters and, for the first time that night, allowed himself to scowl. “Oh, look at me, I’m Gymir.” He said in a silly voice. “I’m so rich I can lavishly decorate a guest-wing! **_Bah_**!”

Thor went to the study room in his wing and grabbed the picture frame of Gymir and his two grandchildren, Gymir looked ten centuries younger. “ ** _Oh_**! Look at me! I’m Gymir! I’m so rich I can buy my way into the pants of someone younger than both my grandkids!” Thor grunted and threw the fame down.

It smashed.

Oh. No.

Thor quickly hopped back into his bed. He’d figure out what to do in the morning.

.

In the end, Thor would discover upon arriving back at Utgardr, that despite his admission of guilt regarding the frame, which he’d played off as an accident, Gymir hadn’t sent a bill to Laufey. No doubt the man was trying to avoid looking like a miser.

The first thing that Thor had done when he’d gotten back was head for Loki’s chambers to get a numbing charm put on him.

He found Loki fast asleep (it was well-past midnight) in his bed, lips slightly parted and drooling a little onto his pillow which he was lying on on his side as though hugging someone, and poked and prodded at the man until he woke up.

“Pain. Please.”

Loki grumbled and cast a numbing charm on him.

“Thank you.”

“Sure. Now _get out!_ ” Thor nodded and made his way towards the door. “Wait!” Thor stopped. Loki dug into his bedside drawer clumsily, and Thor could tell the man was still half-asleep from all the cursing and thunking Loki was doing. Eventually, the door slid closed and Loki called Thor over. “Your brother left this for you- I cast spells all over it to check for poisons or charms, it’s safe.”

“What is it?” Thor asked, holding the block-like object in his hands. It was wrapped in some thin foil.

“Chocolate.” Loki yawned. “He said that your mother had sent it with him, to give to you if he ran into you.”

“And he asked you to give it to me.” Thor shook his head. “I was unaware you two were so close.”

“Nobody can resist my charms.” Loki flashed him a sleepy smile.

Nobody indeed. “Thank you, Loki.” He said, though he knew that the Jotunn had drifted off back to sleep.

And, for no reason **_whatsoever_** _,_ Thor bent down and gave Loki a small kiss on his forehead.

.

Sparring the next day was hard and brutal, Loki had encouraged it to bring strength back to his arm. 

He fought Byleistr mostly. Bylesitr was neither his friend, nor truly his foe, but he was the most skilled warrior the Jotnar had, and he was a **_damned_** good sparring partner. Loki was on standby ‘incase Byleistr broke Thor.’

“You’ve been spending an awful lot of time with Thor.” Jarnsaxa commented, naturally also being present for this. Thor had managed to turn down the gaggle, but Jarnsaxa had elevated status, and was also Byleistr’s cousin, so of course he was present.

"I have no idea what you're talking about.” Ugh, Jarnsaxa being annoying **_again_**.

“Mmm, **_sure_** you don’t. I saw you last night, Loki.” Jarnsaxa whispered, leaning. “Stop trying before you embarrass yourself. There is nothing in these Nine Realms that shall save you from your fate upon Gymir’s cock.”

Thor panted, having had lost once more to Byleistr. He turned and saw Jarnsaxa and Loki close together, talking about _something_. His mind went somewhere _very_ inappropriate and he blushed… but it would be hot though.

Loki looked up suddenly. “Are you done?”

“Aye.” Thor wasn’t feeling the pain all that much anymore, but knew that the story would be completely different once he allowed it some reprieve. He needed Loki’s magic.

Loki slipped off the seat, Jarnsaxa had a weird look on his face that he only ever got when somebody flirt- oh, yeah, okay. Well that was absolutely ridiculous, Loki was beautiful, sure, you’d really have to be **_blind_** not to see that, but Thor wasn’t **_interested_**. Loki’s personality was so **_repulsive_** \- well, now, that wasn’t entirely fair, Thor supposed. Loki did have his moments, certain episodes in which Thor felt comfortable around him- but like, surely not enough to be with him, of course. Because that would be **_ridiculous_**. Absurd, truly.

Loki took Thor’s arm and massaged it, working his seidr into it. Already Thor felt stronger, more energised, then something far less appropriate, but Thor knew from experience that sometimes healing majicks did this to people. His muscle felt loose for a moment, then pleasantly firm. “A few more rounds, maybe two or three, and your arm should be as good as new.” Loki assured. “Come, brother!” Loki turned to Byleistr. “You’ve had a message from,” and then Loki made hand signals, like he was being discrete. Pssh, Thor knew you only made those signals if it was somebody’s lover.

Byleistr nodded and followed his brother out.

“My, my Thor. That was some fight you gave.” Jarnsaxa ran his hands over Thor’s bicep, the injured one, his touch pleasantly cool. “With an injured arm no less. An _arousing_ sight, truly.”

Mmm, the offer was an attractive one. It had been many months since Thor had last taken a partner to bed, but he just didn’t feel into it right now, so he politely declined and made off in the direction of the castle.

He hadn’t had an opportunity to try that ‘chocolate’ thing that Hoder had sent through Loki- that Thor’s **_mother_** had sent for him, but he was eager for it.

He got to his chambers and tried a bite. Immediately a sensation of flavours filled his mouth. It was like a smooth velvet, but it tasted nothing like velvet, and Thor would know that from experience. No, it tasted instead like something both earthy and sweet, something delectable. It melted on his tongue, and the longer it stayed there, the better it got, the happier he felt.

Thor sprinted from his chambers all the way down the stairs and up the other stairs. He burst in through the doors to find Loki sitting in his armchair with a book, probably tired from watching Thor all day. “Loki! Loki! You have to try this!”

Loki looked up in mild annoyance. “Try _what_ , Thor?”

“This chocolate! It tastes _amazing_!” Thor broke off a piece and handed some to Loki. “Try it, I tell you it will change your life.”

Hesitantly Loki took the piece. He nibbled a bit on it at first, before swallowing it down. Mmm, it was so good. He let out a small moan in delight. Thor blamed it on being a fertility god. There was no other reason that his dick should have jumped, other than that he always reacted to such sounds.

“Thank you so much, Thor.”

“Nay, it is _I_ who should be thanking you. You have done so much work on my arm. Thank you, Loki, truly.” Loki’s face betrayed none of his guilt. He couldn’t let Thor know, he decided, this would have to be a secret that he took to his grave.

“Anytime. It is not as though you _chose_ to get hurt.”

“Aye, but you had no obligation to help me.”

“Neither did you in Thrymheim. I guess my debt to you is repaid, then?”

“I guess that it is.”

.

Loki had a fitful night that night. It wasn’t guilt, he was sure of it. His dream just **_happened_** to be one where Thor hadn’t reached Mjolnir on time and had been burnt to death by Bragi. It just _happened_ to be that Bragi became Executioner and there was a funeral for Thor, and everybody wept.

Loki hopped out of bed and raced to Thor’s chambers. This time it was he who burst in without warning.

“Wha- who goes there!?” Thunder clapped and Thor was on his feet instantly, ready to fight.

“Thor, it’s **_me_**!”

“Loki? What are you doing in my bedroom at 2 in the morning?” Oh? Had Thor read the room wrong? Was Loki into him after all? Thor couldn’t blame Loki, of course, most Frost Bitches were into him. And that was a _conservative_ estimate.

“I couldn’t sleep, I had a nightmare.” Loki grabbed Mjolnir from Thor's bedside and hoisted the _heavy_ hammer onto the bed.

“A nightmare about… Mjolnir?”

“No, silly. About the fight. You couldn’t reach Mjolnir and you died, and I woke up and thought ‘hey, it’s a magical hammer, it may as well get its first charm or two’.”

“You will not deface her in such a manner.”

“ ** _Her_**?” Loki raised a brow at Thor, who blushed.

“Well, yes, _her_. She has feelings too, you know.”

“Whatever, Thor. I’m just here to enchant her so that if you call her she will come to you. Doesn’t that sound nice? _Great_! Now come over here so that I may weave my spellwork.”

“I’m surprised that you have a spell for this.”

“I don’t, but all tying spells work the same. Now sit down and hold Mjolnir.” Thor complied and Loki began weaving. The weaving lasted three hours. That was three hours of Loki sleepily yawning and having to be nudged awake by Thor as he mumbled through spells and made hand motions to tie the hammer and god together. This was largely ineffective as Thor himself oftentimes drifted to sleep. Eventually, in the early hours of the morning, just as the sun was beginning to rise, the pair wound up falling asleep, the hammer forgotten.

Loki woke up four hours later to the sound of Thor’s snoring. He wriggled out from under Thor’s large arm, leaning away from the annoying hand that was smudging his face, and woke the man up. “Breakfast time, Thor.”

“What…? Wow, did you really weave spells on Mjolnir this long?”

“No, we fell asleep.” Loki yawned, exhausted. “I’m going to breakfast.”

“Good morning to you too.”

.

Loki was sparring against his brother once more. Byleistr was determined to make a warrior out of him… and if not that, then he supposed his older brother would settle for ‘make a laughing-stock out of him’.

Byleistr had learned from that tactic of Thor’s that Loki may or may not have used that one time, and now he was nigh unbeatable.

“You should launch yourself into the air with your magic, make it look like a high jump, then repeat that trick I taught you, the one where you jump on his chest.” Thor whispered in his ear when Loki went to take a water break.

“That’s a stupid idea.”

“You thought so last time too. Look at what happened? Don’t be stubborn, Loki, trust me.”

“Fine. I will humour you.” Loki said, mockingly. He turned to his brother. “I’m ready, let’s go again.”

“Alright.” His annoying brother hadn’t even broken a sweat. What the fuck, Byleistr? Loki readied himself, sword in hand. “Go!”

Loki did as Thor said, launching himself into the air, using his seidr to give him a boost, and then bringing all of his force down onto his brother. Unfortunately, as Byleistr fell, he managed to grab Loki and swat him to the ground. Where all 1200 pounds of Byleistr promptly fell upon Loki’s meagre 525 pounds.

“Ow! Get off of me!” Loki grunted, as Byleistr rolled to the side chuckling.

“Good one, brother, I’ll admit that it’s an improvement.”

“I need a break again.” Loki hobbled over to a chuckling Thor. “Asshole!” He swatted at the man’s hands when he tried to offer Loki water.

“What? I didn’t know it wouldn’t work! And it was the closest you’d gotten to him all day!” Loki turned to storm back off to Byleistr, but Thor caught his wrist. “Wait, Loki. The proper way to continue through with that attack would have been to twist out of Byleistr’s grasp and stab him in the arm. You’re never going to get the training you need just battling your brother, even though he is the best warrior on Jotunheimr… if you’re free in the evening, I could teach you.”

And even though Loki knew that he ought to refuse that earnest look in Thor’s eyes, that they were getting a bit too close to the border of ‘amicable’, he nodded and thanked Thor for the favour.

It wasn’t like he had anything to lose, he supposed.

.

Thor was a brutal teacher. If Loki hadn’t known any better, he’d have thought that Thor had orchestrated this whole thing as a ruse to beat Loki up for fun… actually…

“Chin up- your eyes should never be off me.” 

“You know, I did just fine against you back in the library.” Loki bit back.

“I seem to recall you losing that fight.”

“I seem to recall you cheating.”

“Oh? How so?”

“You _kissed me_!”

Thor let out a long breath. “Loki, if somebody giving you a **_peck_** on the lips during a fight is enough to make you lose it, then I’d **_hate_** to know what a punch or a kick would do to you.” Why, that bastard-

“Don’t try and act like any of those is equivalent! You kissed me, I wasn’t expecting it, and you used that to your advantage.”

Thor shook his head. “Nope. Wasn’t a kiss, and I use **_everything_** to my advantage, as does any good warrior worth their salt.”

“It **_was_** a kiss.”

“Was not.”

“Was so.”

“Was not.”

“Thor, I’ve **_seen_** kisses before.” Thor huffed.

“That was not a kiss. **_This_** is a kiss!” Thor grabbed Loki suddenly, who yelped in surprise. Thor smashed his face onto Loki’s, grabbing the sides of Loki’s face with his hands and forcing his tongue into the cold crevice that tasted somewhat like spearmint or whatever those herbs Loki liked to chew were called. Loki jerked and jolted, totally confused, making the moment less enjoyable. Thor drew back. “Wow, you are a **_bad_** kisser.”

“What- you took me by surprise!” Loki protested, face aflush. Loki grabbed Thor and shoved his lips onto the Thunder God’s mouth, wiggling his tongue at the entrance to Thor’s mouth, not quite sure what to do with it.

Thor pulled back, tears streaming down his face, crouched over as he laughed. Loki was one beautiful shade of purple right then.

“You-you’ve never been kissed before, have you? Oh this is too good!” Thor pulled himself up, but the moment he saw Loki he started laughing again. “I mean- I don’t even know why I thought- **_obviously_** you’ve never done ‘it’, your father’s saving you for marriage, but- I don’t know.” Thor chuckled. “What are you? 1183? And you’ve **_never_** kissed anyone, not even at a Summit?”

“Well I’ve kissed **_you_** , now haven’t I?” Loki retorted.

“No, I’d say **_I_** kissed you. You did try, though.” Thor broke into laughter once more. 

“Shall I leave you to your laughter, then?” Loki asked, his tone bitter.

“Wha-” Thor grabbed him. “No, no. I’m sorry, that was disrespectful.”

“Indeed.”

“Don’t go. If you want, I could show you how to kiss properly?” What was Thor **_doing_**!?

Loki looked around, heart racing. “I don’t know… my father would kill me if he caught wind of it, he wouldn’t accept that it was just for practice, not when rumours might fly about other things going on.”

“Then sneak into my room, late on Friday night, after everybody’s had their rum. I’ll teach you then, alright?”

What was Loki **_doing_**!? “Alright.”

.

Loki found himself in Thor’s room late on Friday night, after everybody had had their rum. He knocked on the door, which opened a fraction before a hand yanked him in.

“Don’t knock, you’ll wake someone up.”

“I didn’t know if you had company or not.”

“Why would I have company?” Loki gave Thor a look. “Hey, I promised you tonight, did I not? Now come.” Thor led him to the bed. Loki looked at it, slightly nervous. But then, no, this was **_Thor_** he was thinking about. Sure, Thor was a brute and a beast, but he would never do anything like… like **_that_** to Loki. Thor had said that what kept him obedient to Laufey was the fear of what would happen to his family were he not so. And Thor, who was far more clever than others gave him credit for, certainly knew that were he to try and bed Loki like a member of, say, his gaggle, then Laufey would have to kill Thor and wage war on Asgard… or maybe Thor was wise enough to realise that Laufey was more likely to kill him than Thor for such a deed, even with Loki being the one in this whole scenario that was underage.

“Alright,” Thor began. “I’m going to lean in and put my lips on yours. I am going to take your bottom lip between mine. Open your mouth a little, and let my tongue in. We are just going to practice exchanging tongue jabs.”

“Tongue jabs?” Loki managed laugh despite the awkwardness of it all.

“I don’t know how else to describe them.” Thor shrugged. “Just dart your tongue around while I do the same with mine.”

“Alright.” Loki still ‘eeped’ a little when Thor took his bottom lip between his two lips. So shocked was he when Thor sucked on it a little, that he accidentally bit Thor’s lip. Thor pulled back, bringing a finger to his bleeding lip. “I’m terribly sorry!”

“It’s alright. Practice.” Why was Thor doing this again? Oh, right, because he felt **_bad_** for the little twerp. Completely just that, nothing more. It would be plain **_stupid_** to want for more, for three major reasons: 1) Loki’s abhorrent personality; 2) Laufey would have Thor’s head on a spike long before he ever managed to exact vengeance for Baldr; and 3) Loki was his **_enemy_**. He was supposed to want to _kill him_ , remember? “Why don’t you start it this time?”

“Uh,” Loki hesitated. When had he become a blushing virgin? Loki leaned forwards and pressed his lips to Thor’s. Thor took the bottom one between his lips once more, this time foregoing the nibbling he thumbed his tongue across Loki’s lower lip, seeking access, which Loki gave. He swiped over Loki’s tongue, which was a fair bit warmer than most Jotunn tongues. Mmm. He began to dart over Loki’s tongue. Loki, who was obviously completely new to all of this, struggled to bring his tongue into the works… and accidentally bit Thor’s tongue this time.

Thor recoiled back and held tongue out of his mouth, squinting to examine it. A bit of blood too. He could see that Loki was nervous, and so decided to make a stupid joke. “Loki, at least buy me dinner before you mark me up.” That didn’t help. Loki only looked more mortified, even though Thor was mildly impressed that a virgin would get that joke. “Look, it’s okay, don’t worry. Lips and tongues heal lickety-split. Here, we can take it a bit slower this time, don’t feel pressured to join in, just join in when you’re ready.” Thor cupped Loki’s face and brought him in.

Thor sucked on Loki’s lip a bit, they weren’t hard, but they weren’t big and juicy like most Frost Bitches’ either. After a while he moved his left hand from Loki’s cheek to the back of Loki’s head, pulling him a little forwards, stroking Loki’s neck to keep him calm before gently going into Loki’s mouth. Thor had never had to be this gentle with **_anyone_** before, but when you were **_forced_** to teach a royal brat how to kiss… oh well, Thor supposed that this wasn’t **_completely_** awful. Thor pulled Loki in a little closer, the younger man having to scoot in a little to avoid breaking his back.

He stroked Loki’s hair as he deepened the kiss **_slightly_**. After a minute or two, he felt Loki start to move his own hands, trying to copy what Thor was doing, Thor smiled through the kiss. Loki started to stroke Thor’s hair, his long fingers combing it quite tenderly. Thor went in slightly deeper so that Loki wouldn’t have to reach around as much in spite of his already long limbs.

Thor shoved his tongue down Loki’s throat until Loki was gagging on it, allowing him to adjust as he ran his hands down lower- to comfort Loki, of course. 

Loki’s back was taut. Not muscular, but not weak. **_Lean_** , Thor supposed was the right word. Not your **_typical_** Frost Bitch, of which there were two types: the butch ones, like Loki’s mother was, and the softer ones, like Loki’s cousin was. Loki’s back was firm, **_just right_** , and Thor knew from previous glances that Loki had a pair of beautifully defined shoulder blades to go with that back, which was why he made sure to give them a little rub. Loki moaned a little, and Thor rubbed a little harder, moving himself a little closer to Loki this time. 

Loki’s hands came around to Thor’s biceps, **_clutched_** them, clutched the one that **_Loki_** had healed with those hands of his. Thor’s dick twitched, though he didn’t notice it, his hands slowly moving down Loki’s sids, clutching at them like he had no intention of letting go. Loki’s tongue started moving back against Thor’s **_harder_**. Oh, his little bitch thought **_he_** could dominate Thor in this? A slight-growl-emanating-in-Thor’s-throat later, Thor had flipped Loki over and was actively shoving his tongue down his throat, a hand completely covering Loki’s left pectoral, as Thor pressed down in dominance.

Yes, **_he_** ,  **_Thor_ ** , was kissing the fuck out of Loki’s mouth.

Wait.

He… **_Thor_** …was… Oh Norns! Thor ripped himself backwards so hard that he fell off of his own bed. Loki sat up. “Thor! Are you okay!?”

Thor sat up, forcing himself up though his bum hurt. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what was going on, but we-”

“Can’t allow it to happen again.” Loki nodded, a lump in his throat. “I know.” He knew why. Of course he knew why. If Laufey found out- he shuddered to think of what the consequences might be. 

“I’m sorry I let it get so far- I haven’t had sex in a really long time.” Thor shook his head in frustration. “ ** _Clearly_** for a fertility god it’s been too long.”

“And I have never had sex, despite being 17 years off of maturity, I can see why this happened on my end. Let us never speak of this.”

“Agreed.”

.

Thor sat down with a nice bourbon, enjoying the burn down his throat, enjoying the way it chased away the taste of Loki. What had happened?

Did he think Loki was beautiful? Yes, you would **_literally_** have to have no eyes to think anything else of the man. Did he think Loki was a douchebag who would look nice with an imprint of Mjolnir on his face? **_Absofuckinglutely!_** Was Loki **_underage_** despite that Thor had almost- no, Thor didn’t even want to **_think_** about it.

So what gave? Thor thought to himself. Well, he supposed that with all of their mutual animosity, there might have been some unresolved sexual tension, and he knew from battle just how horny being angry at somebody else could make you. Coupled with the fact that he hadn’t had sex in **_months_** , no wonder what had happened happened, he was a ticking time bomb!

Yes, that must be it then. He hadn’t craved for **_Loki’s_** flesh, he’d just wanted to get off. And it must have been a one time thing, nothing more. He said this to himself, even as he wilfully put his toes in a slightly damp area- the dampness of which could have only come from one source- and jerked himself off to the thought of breasts, the last he’d seen being on **_somebody_** ’s shape-shifted chest.

.

Loki hated how wet kissing Thor had gotten him. This was ridiculous- yes, he found Thor visually appealing, anyone with **_eyes_** would find Thor sexually appealing- there was no reason that he should feel **_attracted_** to Thor- he was the **_shallowest damned person on the entire planet!_** **_AND_ ** **_he was_ ** **_blond_ ** **_, which reminded Loki of fucking_ ** **_Jarnsaxa!_ **

Speaking of Jarnsaxa, Thor and he had **_dated_**! He did not want his cousin’s sloppy-seconds anywhere near him… wait a second, sorry, no, Loki was mistaken, Thor was the **_second_** shallowest person on the entire planet, the first would definitely have to be Jarnsaxa.

But then… Loki had enjoyed that moment quite a bit, hadn’t he? He’d enjoyed Thor’s big hands on him, had liked running his hands over Thor’s burly biceps, had liked it when Thor had **_pinned him down_** , had let it get him nice and wet, had at one point almost- no, nevermind. This was wrong, Thor was right. It was not in their respective destinies to bed one another. Thor’s destiny was to be used as a tool for Laufey, and Loki’s was to be used as a tool for… okay, same thing, Loki supposed, even though the means for both outcomes were vastly different. Thor was a physical tool, Loki was a bargaining tool.

Loki sunk back, his head in the pillows. Still, there was no harm indulging in one’s fantasies, Loki supposed. He closed his eyes and remembered it, remembered it all. Remembered Thor pinning him down, remembered Thor’s chest on his chest. Loki stroked himself, imagining it going further. Imagining Thor breaking up after the 30 minutes that Aesir could hold in air for (That was _50_ minutes for Jotnar) and going back down but to Loki’s chin this time, trailing his kisses down until- Loki’s cock shot out thin ropes of pearly white semen, he felt unfulfilled for some reason, his nether lips aching, but brushed it off. This was what Byleistr had told him, much to Helblindi’s chagrin, about how masturbation worked, and it had not failed him so far, whether or not there was a bit of a throb beneath his penis.

Loki got up to go and get some tissues to clean the mess up. No doubt there was going to be a talk tomorrow between him and Thor about setting boundaries- no doubt because **_Loki_** was going to bee the one bringing it up.

.

Dinner the next night was incredibly awkward. Thor had skipped lunch, and Loki had tried to skip dinner but Helblindi had caught him and suggested that they walk there together. The tension was palpable, though Loki was certain that none in his dense-as-boards family noticed a damn thing. Loki ate his broccoli in silence, and Thor despite skipping lunch barely pecked at his salmon.

After Thor got up, Loki did the same and followed him to their neck of the castle.

“Thor! Wait! A word?” Thor turned to the sound of Loki’s voice.

“Yes, my liege?” Wow that was formal.

“Um, Thor… I’ve been thinking about yesterday, and… I think it’s a good idea for us to spend less time around each other… er, I’ve been thinking and maybe some of our _actions_ were related to us being in near proximity too often.”

Thor looked taken aback, but eventually he nodded in agreement. “That is, indeed, a wise idea.”

“Thank you.”

.

So much dodging did they do that it was only **_after_** the next Execution that Thor found out that the reason for it, for the party in the night was that Gymir and Loki were now officially engaged.

Thor wished he’d found out earlier, because after he regained the feeling in his joints, he inexplicably longed to smash something’s face in. He settled for the training dummies. By the time that Thor was done with them, despite using nought but a wooden twig he’d found laying on the floor, they were unrecognisable.

Oh well, just pent-up tension in his joints, most probably. He was just stretching his arms, really. He went to go and get dressed up for the occasion. 

He put on the red and gold skirt that he typically wore to these things and tied back his hair a bit to look more presentable. Barbarians the Jotnar may be, they still dressed up for the right occasion. He slid on his leather and wood slippers and walked down to the party.

He spied a familiar face, one whom he had not talked to in a good while, and went towards him.

“So, engaged are we?” Thor forced a smile in Loki’s direction.

“Yes, I suppose I am.” Thor hated how Loki’s voice betrayed no emotion, that Thor couldn’t get a sense of how much Loki hated this announcement- wait, no, that was wrong, for all Thor knew Loki **_wanted_** this. He clenched his fists.

“Seems a bit early.”

“Yes, well I suppose that Laufey realised that Gymir was my best suitor, that he had the most to offer in terms of military might, especially now with Hlora dead.”

“You’re wearing a shendyt.” Thor noted Loki’s absence of the long skirt he’d made iconic throughout Utgard, regardless of the socialites who tried to take credit for Loki’s dress-influence.

“Aye, father had it sent to my rooms. A special engagement one, modelled after the one that my mother wore to his engagement.” It was a very fetching shendyt indeed. Red with silver and gold embroidery, runes carved in, beads hanging down it, silver mirrors on the hemline. A bit shorter than usual, (and Thor had **_already_** thought that the clothing that people in Utgard wore was a bit too little) but the hanging beads made up for that length.  ~~ Thor wanted to rip it down and off Loki right then and there and see what lay underneath.  ~~ “Congratulations in the ring today. You seemed to enjoy tearing into Arvid.” 

“Dark Elves are always fun.”

Loki shook his head. “Wow. I remember it when you **_hated_** being Executioner, back when it was something you did with reluctance.”

Thor shrugged. “What can I say? It helps with the bloodlust. And what about you? I seem to recall you vomiting on your first viewing.”

Loki blushed. “You weren’t even there.”

“Weren’t you the one who once commented on the incendiousness of court gossip? Or whatever the word you used was.”

Loki shook his head. “I suppose the both of us have changed quite a bit.”

“Aye, such things tend to come with age.”

“Indeed.”

“Loki! Ah, there you are!” Gymir’s voice boomed throughout the hall. Loki was enveloped in a hug, and then a kiss- on the **_lips_** , oh how scandalous! And in front of High Jotunn Society, no less! The crowd echoed that sentiment with various whisperings, and Thor felt like going through the lot of them with Mjolnir. “Come, let us greet guests. Oh, hello Sir Thor!”

“Lord Gymir.” Thor bowed a little. “Oh- ah! May I speak to you in private?”

“Uh, certainly.” Gymir said, clearly confused as to what Thor could possibly want. Thor took Gymir to a corner.

“You didn’t tell Laufey about the frame.” Thor stated. It was neither an accusation nor a question, merely a statement.

“Oh, this?” Gymir shook his head, a gentle old fool’s smile upon his face. “Do not worry, boy. It was just one little frame! It was easily fixed, there is no harm done.”

Thor shook his head. “No, I cannot live knowing I’ve not been a good guest in your home.” Thor took out five pieces of gold, far more than the frame may cost. He may not have had Gymir’s lands and wealth, but he had integrity for sure.

“Oh Thor, this is far too much!” Gymir’s eyes widened in shock.

“I insist, please! One of the few things my mother taught me before I was dragged to this land was that you can leave no debts unpaid. Please, if not for me, then for my lost mother?” He was lying about that in truth, it seemed like something she’d teach him, but he’d only been like 220 when he’d been dragged to Jotunheimr. Hardly something you’d teach a **_child_** , when would you even get the opportunity with all the ankle-biting they did?

Gymir was reluctant, Thor could tell, as he took the money. Reluctant about taking money? Then why was he marrying Loki? If not for wealth or status, what could Gym- no. Oh **_fuck_** no! That fucking pervert! Thor had heard rumours that there was a certain ‘littleness’ kink that ran amongst the elites, that they enjoyed bedding runts because of how tight they were. That was fucking **_disgusting_**! This old pervert wanted to have sex with Loki, knowing full well that he could kill him, because it would ‘feel good’. Thor bit his tongue. It would not do him well to speak at the moment, for there was no certainty that what he would say would not be a cause of war, and instead thanked Gymir and walked away.

Dinner did not help Thor’s mood. Loki was in Gymir’s lap, as was what usually happened, and Gymir was feeding him some food. Gymir’s hands trailed over Loki, his hands on Loki’s chest and back and thighs, inching upwards on those thighs. Laufey, who was sitting beside Thor and talking to a minister, wasn’t going to stop it, Thor knew, this was good PR for a couple he was trying to push, and besides, none of it was illlegal. Thor would know, he’d checked it the second time that he’d witnessed Gymir all-but-fondling Loki. Fondling didn’t count as ‘sex’ under Jotunn Law, only oral intercourse, anal intercourse and vaginal intercourse qualified.

Loki didn’t look comfortable, Thor knew it. He was smiling, sure, he was playing along, but Thor knew that tense line around his shoulders like Thor knew the back of his own Nornsdamned hand. Dammit, Gymir had Loki positioned in such a way that if Jotnar didn’t wear undergarments, Loki’s entire genitalia would have been exposed to the public (and they’d have just eaten it up). Gymir, who Loki fed a glass of wine, suddenly bent down and kissed Loki. Not peck-kissed, but kiss-kissed. Thor watched Loki’s mouth be penetrated by Gymir’s tongue to the raucous applause and wolf-whistles of the public, Thor watched the same techniques that he’d taught Loki being used, and suddenly his hand hurt and so did his chin, and there was glass all around him and his hand was covered in a mix of red wine and blood- impossible to tell which was which.

Everyone turned at the noise, even Gymir stopped his invasion of Loki’s body to see what had happened.

“Oh my, are you alright, Thor?” Laufey asked, concerned. Thor wanted to kill him.

“Yes, yes. I guess I’m just a bit tired.”

“Maybe it is best if you retire?”

“Aye.”

Thor stomped off to his rooms, only to be stopped by somebody ‘poofing’ up in front of him. _Loki_.

“Are you alright?” Loki asked, eyeing Thor’s hand, where the wine had largely dripped away, leaving behind only blood.

“I will be.” Thor grunted.

“Thor, you should go to medical-.”

“I’m **_fine_** , Loki!” Thor snapped.

“Thor.” Loki yanked Thor by his uninjured wrist, surprisingly strong. “What. Is. Wrong?”

Thor exploded. Even with the blood on his hand, some of the glass still embedded in it, Thor shoved Loki against the banister and kissed him fiercely. He pulled back seconds later. “There. Are you **_satisfied_** , Loki? Satisfied that I couldn’t keep my bloody hands off of you?” There, let Loki see Thor for the monster he truly was, maybe the Jotnar had cause to fear the Aesir so.

“Yes, you fool.” Loki grabbed Thor’s head with both his hands and kissed Thor with righteous passion. “Now let us go and fix your hand.”

.

What they had: the hidden glances and the snuck-in make out sessions, was utterly and completely forbidden. **_Technically_** age-wise it was allowed, given that Thor was less than 500 years older than Loki (Thor would have been considered 18-ish on Midgard), but in their case Loki was engaged to somebody else and was therefore very much **_not_** supposed to be seen flirting with anyone else, lest Laufey have him executed for adultery. No, not Executed, adultery was seen as a crime committed by the ‘lesser’, it was the **_only_** crime in all of Jotunheimr that could not be met by Execution on Jotunheimr. And Loki had no doubt in his mind that Laufey would execute him to not only save his own (Laufey’s) face, but that of Thor’s as well. Yes, Jotunheimr had laws on Misters too.

“I hate watching him touch you.” Thor murmured into Loki’s skin the night after another feast, this time in honour of Farbauti. Thor had spent the entire time wanting to rip each individual finger off of Gymir, wanting to watch the elder giant scream out in pain, wanting to **_punish him_** for touching Loki in such ways.

“And I hate him doing so.”

“Then tell him to stop!”

“In front of my father?” Loki scoffed. “You’ve seen what Laufey’s willing to do to me- who says that that’s the worst he’s got?”

It still didn’t mean that Thor was happy to see Gymir all-but-grope Loki in public. It didn’t mean that Thor was content that a man old enough to be Loki’s grandfather was allowed to touch him so brazenly in public whilst he was still underage. He hoped beyond hope that Helblindi changed the laws when he became king. Loki’s eldest brother seemed like a pretty swell guy for someone so stuck-up.

Loki leaned up to kiss Thor’s jawline, hand dipping down to Thor’s crotch. Thor caught Loki’s hand in a vice-like grip. “No, Loki.”

“But-”

“ ** _No_**! I will not have you while you are underage!” Loki pouted.

“Well the age of consent on this bedrock of ice is so stupid anyways! On Alfheim it’s 1000!”

“And on Asgard it would have been 2000. Not all species mature at the same rate, Loki.” Thor shook his head. “The **_real_** question is why is Jotunheimr’s age of consent so low. Even when you take into account the difference in maturation, yours should be at least 200 years higher.”

“It’s for Frost Bitches, mostly. So that you can try your hand out on different mates before your first heat, to help you settle down easier. The system’s not perfect, but nobody wants to be forced to mate somebody whom they despise.

“And yet here you are, in bed with me.” Thor teased.

“At least buy me dinner first.” Loki joked. Thor grabbed Loki’s face, pulling him down onto the covers and kissing it all over. **_His_** Loki.

.

Loki woke up one night in a cold sweat. Since his engagement to Gymir, his dreams of dying upon a cock had become more and more vivid. His plan, for a long time coming, had been to escape before the wedding, but the extra surveillance from his father made it evident that Laufey knew **_exactly_** what Loki was planning to do.

The difference between most nights and this night was that he’d woken up in bed, next to Thor. They’d been talking all night, with Loki recounting some stories which Hoder had shared during the Winter Summit about Thor as a child, some stories which Loki had been too excited not to immediately share, such as: The One with Thor and the Pot of Honey; That Time Thor Managed to Net a Demon and Bring It Back To Asgard; The Time Thor Got Captured by Space Pirates; and, Loki’s favourite, Thor and the Wasp’s Nest. Thor had playfully punched Loki in the arm for that one, then kissed it all better.

Now the mood was less joyous though, and it seemed that Loki’s restlessness had woken Thor up too.

“Loki?” He called, groggily. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing.” Loki laid back down and turned around. Thor turned over too, until he was practically covering him. With Thor’s mouth to Loki’s ear, Thor whispered in again:

“What’s wrong?”

“I had a bad dream, that’s all.”

“And what was it about?”

“Can’t remember.”

“ ** _Loki.”_** Thor chided, his voice not commanding and yet no less persuasive than if he **_had_** been commanding Loki.

“I don’t want- I don’t want my first encounter… I don’t want to **_die_** during my first encounter.” Loki explained, sadly, his chest rising and falling and staying fallen.

Thor kissed his ear, then went silent for a bit. “I can’t have you before your birthday, it would be dishonourable.”

“I **_know_** , you’ve said it a thousand times.” Loki huffed, frustrated.

“ ** _However_** , there are other acts of sex that have nothing to do with intercourse.” Thor said, face buried in the crook of Loki’s neck. “Acts of sex that are in no way illegal.”

Thor could tell by Loki’s shift in posture that Loki was confused. Awwww, poor sweet, innocent Loki. Thor ground up against him in their cuddle, causing him to yelp. Yes, his sweet little Frost Bitch.

.

Loki stood at his balcony, analysing the guards’ positions around the Utgard Gate. Aurboda, Bakrof, Bylgja, Eldr, Herkja, Litr, Oskrudr… getting past them would be had, without a doubt. He could teleport, yes, but the wall was **_wide_** , and his teleportation skills were rather lacklustre. And also he’d heard rumours, likely rumours originating from Laufey’s own mouth, that Laufey had called in Vanir High Witches to seal the wall so that one would **_have_** to walk through the Gate, with a seal of permission from Laufey himself.

Loki felt inclined to test this out himself, but were he to manage getting through the Wall, his father would undoubtedly add **_more_** safeguards, and Loki was not so certain that he would be able to escape them, even with his quick-wit and genius-level intellect. Laufey hated seidr, of course, but it seemed that he was not above using it to get his way to keep Loki tethered to him and the realm.

Maybe he could dig a tunnel? Maybe he could get Thor to fly him out?

_Thor_. Loki shook his head. He would be leaving him here, wouldn’t he? Loki could not take Thor, because Thor would never agree to go. Not when it could endanger Asgard. And Loki couldn’t tell Thor about this because… well, because even though they’d had amorous relations for a few months, there was still no true indication that Loki could trust him not to reveal all of his secrets to Laufey. If Thor had to choose between Loki’s freedom and his people’s safety, then… well, though Loki already know the answer to that puzzle, he didn’t want to have two live through it, irrational as it was that it hurt him even slightly.

‘It is not these chains that keep me here, but my duty to my people,’ Thor had said something along those lines once, on their quest to Thrymheimr. If Loki knew what was good for him, he’d nip whatever it was he had with Thor in the bud before things went too far. No harm in physical happenings, certainly, but Loki shouldn’t divulge private things as much, he knew. Like that nightmare, there had been no reason to tell Thor of it.

It was weird being so intimate with someone when you knew that there was a countdown timer on the ‘relationship’, weirder still when you got to set that timer. Loki hummed.

Where was he? Escaping, right. He could always shapeshift, he supposed. His father knew next-to-nothing about his powers in regards to his ability to change his form. It wasn’t even seidr that was being used, just species-fluidity, really, changing skins felt as natural to him as changing clothes, provided that he retained his own form, as in he didn’t give himself blond hair or change the nose from what it would be had he been born in whatever creature’s body. Yes, that was promising. He could transform himself into a raven, fly off with a piece of paper between his talons. They’d think him a messenger, never suspect him of being a prince. 

He could build up some familiarity with everyone until then. Gift Helblindi a raven that looked just like his raven form, and masquerade as his brother’s pet until his escape. It was a good plan.

.

Being largely confined to the city did not exempt Loki from Summits. The Summer one was, believe it or not, on Asgard. 

Loki watched Laufey take it all in, the land he had destroyed several centuries ago. It was still in the process of rebuilding, that much was evident. The crops seemed largely dry and it was incredibly arid.

_It’s because they don’t have their Thor_ , the thought ran through Loki’s mind. Yes, by taking Thor they had taken the land’s source of life. Their fertility god, their rain-bringer… their protector. Loki usually felt nothing when it came to Asgard: neither sympathy nor hatred… but his gut ached a little at the thought of Thor knowing about the condition of his people… Thor had been the heir to this land once, Loki wondered if the god could sense his land’s pain, wondered if it was why Thor sometimes had random fits of rage where he’d go and chop off all of the heads on the training dummies, before sewing them back in upside down and stabbing them through with a broadsword… why was he having make-out with this man again?

On his neck, Loki wore a litany of bite marks and hickies. Thor had wanted him to have something to remember him by (In truth, Thor had gotten a strangely possessive urge at the thought of Loki, for the first time since their trysts had begun, going off somewhere far off without Thor, and had both wanted to remind Loki whom he belonged too and wanted to ward off any unwanted propositions from all the unworthy sons of kings that he knew Loki would be getting now that he was so close to being legal (if Loki were flustered enough he’d forget his magic and they would see the marks clear as day). The knowledge that Loki’s engagement had been made public had done the opposite of what it ought to have. Thor was no fool, he knew how spoilt, arrogant rich kids reacted to finding out they couldn’t have something- look at how Loki had reacted to not being able to have Thor!) Loki had masked the marks with his seidr, but had left them on by Thor’s request so that he may glance upon them in the night, sleep with them on his skin.  ~~ Wasn’t he supposed to be getting **_less_** intimate with Thor? ~~

Loki was surprised, given his father’s standing in trans-planetary relations, that he’d even allowed for the Summer Summit to be held on Asgard. Not only were the Aesir the Jotnar’s oldest rivals ( ** _yes_** , older than the Fire Giants), but also because Asgard wasn’t known as the Sunshine Realm for nothing. It was bearably-hot for now, sure, but Loki knew how Jotunn biology worked, within two days they’d have exhausted their ice reserves, and would either need to go back to Jotunheimr or would need to barricade themselves in a freezer somewhere.

Well, the **_others_** would get hot, Loki’d cast cooling charms on himself and his formal cloak. He could just shapeshift, of course, it would make everything much more bearable, but he couldn’t risk Laufey cluing in to his main escape plan, so he would have to wear this form for the foreseeable future.

“Loki!” Ran greeted him. She wasn’t a part of any delegation, but she always made it to these things. Loki didn’t question it, he enjoyed her company far too much.

“Ran.” He smiled, hugging her.

“How goes Ægir?” She asked.

“Lord Ægir is well.” Loki smiled. “He sends you his warmest of regards. That hug was from him. He wanted see to give you this.” He handed her a letter. Well, about ninety sheets of paper which Ægir had insisted to Loki was just the ‘one’ letter.

“Oh, thank you Loki!” Ran ran off to read it, leaving Loki to his eternal solitude.

“Loki!” Hoder greeted.

“Prince Hoder.” Loki bowed respectfully. “Your brother sends his regards.” It was nice seeing Hoder smile like that. Maybe if the Asgardian Royal Family we’re spared from Laufey’s destruction, Helblindi would allow Thor to spend time with his family during his reign. That was a nice thought.

“I thank you for your message.”

“He also asked me to send, uh…” Loki made a motion with his hands that he hoped Hoder would interpret as a letter. Then he remembered that the man was blind.

“Of course, of course.” Hoder understood it regardless, thankfully. “I understand that we shall have to be discreet about this too.”

“Aye. If you would like to _go on a walk_ , I could slip them to your then.”

“Asgard thanks you for your kindness, Prince Loki. Thor is fortunate to have found a friend like you.” Oh wow, way to make this awkward.

“It is I who was fortunate that someone my-size was sent to our lands.” Loki joked. Hoder frowned and used his stick to tap around Loki. Somehow, it seemed, Hoder had not gotten the message about Loki being a runt, or perhaps he did not know what that word meant. 

“Hoder!” A woman’s voice called. Loki and Hoder turned their necks towards it. Out came a woman with golden hair, dressed in a beautiful linen dress with a long, flowy skirt. The woman radiated power. This was Thor’s mother. That was not a question, that was an understanding. The woman stopped when she saw the two of them together, and her eyes raked over Loki. He caught her staring just a fraction of a second too long at his neck, and in that moment he knew two things: 1) She could see past his spell work, and 2)She knew **_exactly_** who had left those marks there.  ~~ If only he knew whether or not he approved of this.  ~~ “Ah, Prince Loki.” She bowed his way, a smile on her face. Oh damn-straight did she know whose bite marks those were, even if the last time she’d seen the owner of those teeth had been over a 1000 years ago.

“Mother, what is it?”

“Oh, nothing, I was just calling to see where you’d wandered off to.” She turned to Loki then. “He’s always wandering about the palace, you see. It gets a bit troublesome, obviously, because he’s **_blind_**. I’ll leave you kids alone.”

Wait a second. Could Loki have been wrong? Could she be thinking- _ew,_ ** _no_**! Hoder was at least 300 years younger than Loki- and he was most certainly **_not_** Thor.

Not that that was part of Loki’s criteria, of course.

AND WHERE WOULD HODER HAVE EVEN FOUND THE TIME TO MARK HIM UP LIKE THIS!? ALL THE CUTS ALONG HIS NECK HAD **_HEALED_**! WHAT THOR HAD DONE WAS **_ART_** -HOW **_DARE_** QUEEN FRIGGA INSULT HER SON’S HANDIWORK LIKE THIS!?

“Come along,” Hoder led Loki outside to the gardens. He took him to Frigga’s private garden. Lokiquickly and quietly slipped the pages to Hoder. Thor’s spelling was abysmal. He hadn’t had that much of an education since he’d been plucked from Asgard. Most of what he’d had was militaristic. It seemed that even back then Laufey had known what his use for Thor would have been. Loki had, after reading the first seven lines of Thor’s letter to his mother, offered to rewrite them, and had promised to teach Thor how to spell properly once he came back. “Thank you.” Hoder said. “We should stay out here a little longer, so as to not arouse suspicion.”

“Good plan.” Laufey would have no doubt wondered why Hoder had taken Loki away for only a brief number of moments. Longer, and Loki could explain it away as Hoder giving Loki a tour.

Except that when they got back, Helblindi looked mortified and Byleistr had nudged him, a wink upon his face. What? Loki checked to make sure his clothes were clean, then checked his hair to make sure it was spick and span… then realised that he was feeling a little hot, which shouldn’t have been possible. His eyes widened and went to his shoulder, where sure enough some of the marks Thor had left on his skin the previous night were visible.

Loki quickly recast the spells on him, freaking out. How could this have happened? He thought back to Frigga’s garden. That honeydew-smelling plant, the one that had drawn him in. Did it have anti-magic properties?

“Loki.” Loki didn’t have to turn and face his father, who by chance happened to have been standing behind him, to know that he was about to be in a lot of trouble. He gulped. He turned around.

“Yes, father?” Laufey’s silence spoke volumes. He didn’t need to be screaming at him right now for Loki to flinch. There was something about someone being silent, about the restraint shown in the action, that had always set the Silver Tongue on edge. Rather than further pursue this matter, Loki went silent, understanding that it was his father’s intention that Loki not speak for the rest of this Norns’ forsaken trip.

Dinner was served at 8. Loki walked down with Helblindi, who was mercifully trying to help Loki avoid upsetting their father too much. “Maybe he’ll forget it if you just lay low?” Helblindi tried.

“I hope so.”

“What were you two even doing? Loki, you know you’re engaged to Gymir now, officially!” 

Loki shook his head. “Nothing happened between us, brother, I swear it.”

“Loki, you came in and the entirety of your neck was full of love marks.” 

“They are not from here, brother. I hardly know anybody here well enough for that.” Loki pleaded.

“If not from here, then _where_? _Court_?” Helblindi’s eyes widened as the realisation dawned upon him.

“Brother, you cannot tell anybody!” Loki insisted. “ _Please_!”

“Loki…” Loki knew how Helblindi hated lying to Laufey. Helblindi was a **_terrible_** liar to begin with, forget lying to Laufey he couldn’t even lie to strangers on the street. But Loki knew that he _would_ lie, or at least try to do so, if it were upon Loki’s request. “Fine.” Helblindi sighed. “But tell me no more of this.”

“Thank you- and anybody includes Byleistr! He is a **_horrible_** gossip!”

.

“What were you thinking, boy!?” Odin boomed at his only son. Well, he had another, but for Asgard’s sake he was forced to ‘forget’ about Thor.

“Nothing, father, nothing! Nothing happened, I promise!” Baldr breathed. Never mind that he would never touch anybody other than Karnilla, but Baldr doubted that his father was up for that information at the moment.

Odin shook his head in rage. “ ** _First_** Laufey takes your brother, now he tries to take over Asgard by having Loki marry **_you!?_** You’re supposed to be getting information on how to get your brother back, not losing our kingdom in the process! ** _”_**

“Father, please.” Odin shook in rage. “Father, look. We only went to mother’s garden so that Loki could pass me these.” Baldr held out the letters that Thor had sent through Loki. “We stayed out longer because we didn’t want us leaving to seem suspicious, Laufey cannot know about these letters.”

Odin took the proffered letters. There were three: one addressed to each member of the Royal Household. Frigga’s was the longest, Odin hid his smile well. “If you did not put those marks on the Laufeyson’s neck?”

Baldr shook his head. “I’ve no clue, father.” Odin nodded, not accepting the answer, but not seeing any point in arguing this further. Baldr was, above all, honest. Even now, in his teenage rebellious stage, he’d never managed to keep himself from crawling back to his parents to admit the truth of a situation within days of said situation. He’d know what had happened eventually, even though he was certain of what had happened in that moment.

“Take your leave then, boy.” Odin nodded, gesturing to the door, knowing full-well that his son and heir would be crawling back through those doors before the week’s end with a new confession atop his lips.

.

Throughout dinner, Odin and Laufey avoided conversation. Well, that was until Surtur brought up the elephant in the room, and a heated discussion began on their end of the table about why Loki was ‘too good’ for Hoder and vice-versa.

Down on the non-heads-of-state-and-immediate-heirs section of the table, Loki found himself seated next to Queen Frigga herself. She kept smiling down at him, eyeing his neck which Loki had gone ahead and healed, as he should have done in the first place.

“You know, Prince Loki, that is a very good climate-control charm you have on your cloak.” Frigga said.

“Thank you, Your Highness. I love the levitating chair show you’ve put on for us.” Loki nodded in the direction of said show, which was in front of them.

“Thank you. I learned the spell as a girl, while I was training with the Vanir High Witches.”

“Ah, yes! You’re originally of Vanaheim!”

“Yes.” Frigga smiled. “Guilty as charged. The men in this family seem to have a thing for extraterrestrials.” She said the last bit softly, but not harshly. Whichever of her sons she thought was into Loki, she seemingly approved. Loki still wound up choking on his veal at the comment.

Frigga left him alone after that. Loki admittedly did not understand her game, and in all honesty he was not so sure that it was something he wanted to understand. At this point in their trip, though there were still six days left, Loki already very much wanted to go back home.

.

“The nerve of that man!” Odin boomed. “Thinking that that runt can hold a **_candle_** to Baldr!”

“Well, honey. Our son is **_blind_** , you know how the Jotnar feel about disabilities.”

“Bah! Baldr is not **_blind_** , his eyes just see the underworld!” Odin shook his head in anger. “The **_nerve_** of that man, to just waltz in here and try to steal my other son as a spouse for his failure of a child!”

“Odin! That is enough! Watch your language!”

“You cannot _honestly_ approve! Baldr is our last remaining child!”

“A child he is _not_ , Borson! And those bite marks were there when Loki came **_in_**! They’re from your **_other_** son, the one you always seem to forget!” Frigga shouted.

Odin stilled. So those weren’t- so Baldr had been telling the truth? Wait a second- “Laufey said that Loki was to wed some giant called _Gymir_ , not **_Thor_** … what if this is a surprise attack? A game to catch us while we’re down? We **_think_** the seidrmadr is marrying some old buffoon, but in reality he is marrying our _very powerful_ son, and producing _very powerful_ warriors for Jotunheimr in the process! I must end-”

Frigga threw a pillow at him **_hard_** (which was **_not_** domestic abuse because neither of them were afraid of the other, and also he’d done it before too. It was their way of getting the other to shut up, though usually it was more affectionate). “Husband, you buffoon! There is no plot- Laufey does not know of this! Did you not see his reaction to the marks!? This is a **_secret_** , it is a **_tryst_**!”

“What? No! No son of ours would commit adultery.” Frigga stared long and hard at her husband of half-an-eternity. “Well definitely not with a Frost Giant!” Frigga just kept staring as Odin stayed put in his mentality of denial.

“Husband, both our sons, resurrected and imprisoned, are almost adults, fully capable of screwing up both their lives as well as the lives of everybody around them. Thor most **_definitely_** is having an affair with Loki, not that it should bother you given that we haven’t even _seen_ our boy in over 1000 damned years! If he is able to find happiness in whatever conditions that Laufey-King is keeping him in, then for the Norns’ sakes let him be!” Odin was silent. “Come on, oh God of Wisdom.” Frigga taunted. “If the Goddess of Marriage can get behind this, I don’t see why you can’t.”

“How **_can_** you get behind this?”

Frigga shook her head. “I do not support unions intended to lead to the death of one party. And no matter how nice of a person Gymir might be, his wedding of Loki is a death sentence to the young prince. Loki knows it, Laufey knows it… Thor knows it, and yet still he sticks by him, knowing their days are numbered. Their love is young, it’s still budding, but at least it’s _there_.” Frigga collected herself before escorting herself out of the room with the letter Odin had given her upon entry, leaving her husband with his thoughts.

.

On the last day of the Summit from Hell, as it would come to be sung in the sagas of the future, Frigga went up to talk to Loki.

“Thank you, Prince Loki, for delivering the letters from my son.” Frigga bowed her head a little. She then held out a letter. “If it would be possible, could you…?”

“Of course, Your Highness.” Loki took the letter and put it in a space pocket (he’d figured out how to do one after seeing Angrboda perform the feat on that quest to Thrymheimr).

“Remarkable piece of magic.” Frigga shook her head fondly. “Thor mentioned that you were good with spells… it is a shame that Laufey won in lieu of Odin. Asgard has some pretty backwards attitudes when it comes to seidr, but had you been brought to live under this roof, as _my_ son, I would have made sure you had a magical education befitting of your talents.” 

Loki looked down and smiled a little. “It is funny that you say that, your son has echoed similar sentiments previously.” 

That brought a smile to her lips. “I’m sure he has.” She took his hand and glanced at his neck again. “Nice healing magic, by the way.”

“Er, thank you.”

“No, no I mean it. You really are a skilled seidrmadr, you know.” Frigga chuckled then. “Oh, I’m sorry. It’s just that I’ve realised quite how similar both of my sons are just now.”

“Oh?”

“Yes! They’re both in love with highly-powerful seidrfolk who are from a different planet, it’s remarkable.” Loki raised a brow. “Oh, Hoder thinks I don’t know, but he’s been sneaking around with a woman twice his age called Karnilla- she’s the Queen of the Norns- for quite some time now… and I doubt that my elder son left those marks on one of his ‘friends’.” Loki flushed. “Don’t be embarrassed.” _How could he not be!?_ “There is nothing to be embarrassed about, Prince Loki of Jotunheimr, when it comes to love.”

“I’m afraid you must be mistaken, Your Highness. Neither Thor nor I love each other.”

Frigga shook her head, as she walked away her voice trailed back to Loki like the flow of a linen skirt “You don’t willingly leave bruises like that on your body for just anybody!” And then it was time for Loki to be alone with **_his_** thoughts.

He did not like his thoughts.

.

Thor was upon him as soon as they arrived. Apparently the whole ‘Hoder x Loki’ rumour had crawled its way back to Jotunheimr before Loki had managed to.

Thor shoved him up against the door of his bedroom, a surprise attack. “Tell me that these rumours are not true.” He shook Loki. “ _Tell me_!”

“So what if they are? It is not as though this is a relationship, Thor.” A wave of hurt crossed Thor’s face, and Loki felt a tugging in his tummy. “No, Thor. The rumours are false. I went to your mother’s garden with Hoder so that I could give him your letters with no prying eyes. We stayed a bit longer so that there would be no suspicion on why we’d only stepped outside for a bit. I suppose that one of your mother’s flowers reacted with my seidr, because when we got back all of my spells were off, including the one that hid your teeth marks.”

“So there is nothing between you and my brother?”

“No.” Who are you angry with in this scenario anyways? Your brother who kissed your current make-out-person, or your make-out-person who got close to your innocent little brother? Loki longed to ask these questions, but knew that they would be unwelcome at the time.

Thor sighed in relief against him. “Good.” He said, rocking himself soothingly against Loki, their foreheads touching. Loki liked this, for some reason. Liked being caged in Thor’s arms. He let his appreciation be known by taking his hands back to cradle Thor’s head and wrapping his legs around the ( ** _marginally)_** taller man’s waist. Thor rutted up against him, his hands sliding down. “I missed you.”

“As did I.”

“A week is a long time.”

“Indeed it is.” And then Thor’s hands slipped down further south than normal. “Thor?”

“Sssh. I believe I promised you that you would not be dying on your first sexual encounter?” Thor kissed Loki’s brow. “Well, it is time for me to live up to that promise.” Thor led Loki over to the bed and ripped off his shendyt. Thor took off his own shendyt, not looking down at Loki's crotch for some reason.

“I’m confused- how can we have sex but not have sex?” Loki turned to Thor. 

“I’m going to rub you off.”

“ _Masturbation_? That’s not sex, Thor!” Thor took Loki’s cock in his hand, and Loki felt tingles up his spine. Loki had touched himself **_many_ **times, but it had never felt like this. He almost came right then and there.

“Mmm, do you like that?” Thor purred into Loki’s neck, positioning himself behind the younger alien.

“Mhm.” Loki arched into the hand on his neck, feeling himself growing wet.

“Good.” Thor kissed the back of Loki’s neck, speeding up his jerking and thrusting his own member against Loki’s back. It wasn’t the same as _actually_ fucking someone, but it felt… nice. Loki’s skin, while cool and soft-hard, was starting to warm up a bit. It felt sort of like rutting up against his pillow, almost, something he used to do sometimes back when he was in the dungeons, back when he was a youth, like 800-ish (what was that on Midgard? Like 15?). He would have gone with ‘horny youth’, but only one of those things wasn’t true anymore. Loki spilled in his hand with a cry, and then went limp, Thor continued to fuck against Loki’s back, the feel of Loki’s arse on his thighs spurring him on until his eventual climax moments later. “There,” Thor panted, “Your first sexual experience.”

“Thank you.” Loki said, meaning it. It was then that Thor realised he was going to have to school Loki on pillow talk too.

.

Hours later was dinner time. Loki took one look at his father and immediately knew that all was not forgotten, and that Loki was in for a world of trouble as soon as dinner was over. He chose not to eat too much, not wanting to get punished for _vomiting_ were Laufey to slap him too hard.

“My. Office.” Laufey had growled, as though Loki had expected anything else. He glanced around the table and saw his mother turn his head away. Fucking typical.

.

“You never _cease_ to bring disgrace upon this family!” Laufey boomed so loud that it made the ceiling shake. Were Loki not in constant makeout sessions with Thor, he would have thought Laufey to be the Thunder God. “The entirety of the Nine Realms is talking about this! Gymir is considering ending this engagement! Do you have any idea of what this costs us!?” Loki shook, Laufey had never been this angry before. He thought of his mother, Farbauti, and wondered if he’d had to endure this upon Laufey’s discovery that Loki was, in fact, a runt. Wondered if the same fate that befell his mother was about to befall him too.

Laufey struck Loki so hard that he fell to the floor. The assault didn’t end there though. Laufey continued to punch and batter Loki so hard that he thought that he might break. He picked Loki up and flung him into a wall. Loki raised his hands to use his seidr to block Laufey’s outburst, but Laufey was so angry that it broke right through. Loki tried to burn Laufey, Laufey didn’t care. Loki tried to teleport, but didn’t have the strength to make it that far. 

Loki’s screams were heard far and wide, it seemed, because Helblindi came bursting through the door, a panicked look upon his face. “Father! **_Stop_**!” Laufey did not heed his elder son’s warnings.

“No!” He roared, moments away from using ice to cut Loki open and tear him out from the inside.

“Father! Hoder did not leave those marks!” Helblindi bellowed. It was then that Laufey stopped, and Loki felt himself die inside. No, Helblindi, no. “It was not Hoder, those marks were on before we left- I **_saw_** them before we left! His lover is someone from court, father! Everyone in court is many centuries older than him! He is being manipulated and abused _under your roof_! He is your **_son_** , his virtue is  **_yours_ ** to protect! **_You_** have brought disgrace upon this family, not hi-” Laufey slapped Helblindi then, hard. Loki was astounded that Laufey could do such a thing to his prized heir.

“He is no son of mine!” Laufey declared. “Get out.” Laufey spat. “Both of you- **_get out_**!”

And Loki knew in that moment that Helblindi had condemned Loki to a fate worse than death.

.

Loki’s magic was tied with a band around his wrist, and their were guards around him now, all day everyday.

He was permitted to go out once a day for some exercise, but no more than that.

Every book he read was screened for profane content and sorcery, and he wasn’t even allowed to be alone in his own room. Not even while he slept.

Loki wanted to die.

How was Laufey, in all his kingly wisdom, supposed to know that one of the guards assigned to Loki was not his lover? Huh? Loki flexed his fingers.

He couldn’t see Thor anymore either, aside from meals. Not because Laufey suspected them, of course, how would he ever suspect that his prized champion had lain in bed with his disgrace of a son? That Thor had touched him, intimated kisses with him, **_taught him_** how to kiss? Ha! No, of course not, Loki stewed. And it wasn’t like Laufey would pick Thor to guard Loki at any given time because he would **_never_** want to waste _Thor_ ’s time.

He was only spared by the fact that Gymir had, eventually, decided not to pull out of their engagement.

The constant monitoring was how Loki came to overhear a whispered conversation one fine, winter morning. He rose and went to his bathroom to take a shower. When he came back, the room was empty so that he could change his clothes.

Two guards were on patrol right outside: Einer and Hala, a younger guard that was relatively new to the guard-force. He heard them gossiping and crept to the door slowly and quietly, so as to avoid alerting them to his presence. 

“-not even his son! The conception dates just don’t line up!” He heard Hala say.

“Boy, let me tell you a story that not many know: when Farbauti fell pregnant, there were a lot of rumours flying that one of his guards, Hæra, was sleeping with him. Laufey was very angry and dragged Farbauti away to a remote cabin to give birth then.”

“So the prince might be a bastard?”

“One thing is for sure, none of Laufey’s could be born so weak.” Einer chuckled. Loki felt his breathing stop.

Laufey was not his father, then? He’d suffered his **_whole life_** under somebody who was not even his fucking father!? Loki wanted to let a blast out, but his seidr had been cut off. Oh, of course of course of **_fucking course_** he was not of Laufey’s blood!

Loki turned back to dress himself in his shendyt and dry his hair. When he combed his hair, he ran the comb through it so roughly that entire chunks of knotted hair came out- not enough for anyone to notice, but enough that it hurt somewhat, not that his mind was on it. Who was this Hæra? He didn’t even have to meet him to know that he was most likely his father. His heart raced. Could Loki get an annulment of his engagement on the grounds that it was not his true father who had arranged it? Probably not, with Laufey in charge, but if Loki knew who this man was, perhaps he could flee to him. Maybe he was a runt too, like Loki? No, that one seemed a stretch, Laufey would never allow a runt to guard his queen. Maybe the man was where Loki had gotten his seidr from.

Loki walked out of his room, Einer and Hala shifting to follow him. “I would like to go to see my brother, Helblindi.” They nodded and escorted him to his brother’s rooms. Einer knocked on the door.

“Who is it?” Helblindi called.

“Your **_brother_**!” Were it not for these two guards’ presence ruining the moment, Loki would have added ‘the short one!’ But he did not feel like sharing a laugh with them, assuming that they were capable of such a reaction to one of his comments. They’d probably just grunt and tell Laufey about it.

Helblindi opened the door and ushered Loki in. The only rooms the guards didn't enter were the bathrooms, his brothers’ rooms, and the dining room. “Brother, I was not expecting you.” Helblindi said. From the looks of it, Helblindi had been reading up on foreign policy prior to Loki’s arrival. Helblindi was nothing like that pig-headed, dullard, _oaf_ of a brother they shared. The oaf that Loki loved very, **_very_** much.

“Brother, can we please move into your bedroom? What I have is a question of a sensitive nature.”

“Certainly.” Helblindi eyed him sceptically. Loki wasn’t upset with Helblindi for telling Laufey. Yes, he had no freedom anymore, but in hindsight it was very likely in that moment that Laufey would have killed him. It would have been a bit harder to physically escape Utgard if he were dead.

Once they were in Helblindi’s room (bed unmade, classic ‘Blindi) Loki asked him: “Brother, have you ever heard of a man called Hæera?”

“Hmmm… sounds familiar. Maybe, why?”

“Mother’s old guard, Hæra?”

“Ah, yes! I do believe he had one at some point!”

“You can’t tell anybody about this, but- I think that he might be my father.” Loki’s voice dropped to a whisper.

Helblindi stared at him. “No… he is not your father. You are of Laufey and Farbauti, brother. Same as By and me.”

“No, no.” Loki shook his head. “I overheard some of the guards talking, apparently there was an **_affair_**! And the more I’ve thought about it, the more it makes sense, father could not have sired me, Blindi! We were in the middle of our war against Asgard, he was on the frontlines fighting when I was conceived!”

But still Helblindi shook his head, Loki huffed. His brother was in denial, clearly.

“Well you can’t **_know_**!” Loki snapped.

“Except that I **_do_** , brother!”

“This is useless! I do not understand why you are fighting this so hard! It makes so much sense! Why Laufey was so violent with mother after my birth, why I was born a **_runt_** , why I have **_seidr_**.” Loki looked up into Helblindi’s eyes. “It wouldn’t change anything. You and By would still be my family.”

Helblindi shook his head. “Loki- you are Laufey’s child, not Hæra’s. Brother, trust me on this.” Loki could tell that this was going nowhere, so he nodded.

“Well, I am going to be heading to the library then. Have fun with foreign policy- we’re going to need your diplomacy when we have to explain why it was alright to invade Muspelheim.” 

Helblindi watched his brother go, nervously. His brother was about to open a whole can of worms, a can that he hadn’t even been looking for. Helblindi shook his head. His father had never loved Loki, even when he’d held Loki in his hands for the first time after giving birth to him. Oh yeah, Helblindi **_knew_** that Laufey was Loki’s other parent- he **_very_** vividly remembered the fight that his parents had had, except that it wasn’t about Hæra, it was about the fact that during Laufey’s heat **_he_** had lain before Farbauti had some point and had wound up pregnant. He remembered doing the spy work to figure it out… and if Loki were to find out- if it became **_public knowledge_** … well, look at what Laufey had done to **_Farbauti_** upon learning of Loki’s status? Imagine what he could do to a runt… Helblindi remembered Loki not being able to **_walk_** for days after the post-Winter-Summit incident, and that wasn’t even for a crime to **_Laufey’s_** personal pride.

And look at how viciously Laufey had fought in the war **_after_** Loki’s birth.

.

By Loki’s 1192nd birthday, Laufey had calmed down somewhat. The guard detail around Loki had decreased significantly. If Loki were to guess, he would say that Laufey had realised that whomever had left those marks on Loki had been scared off. In actuality, however, he wouldn’t have been surprised if it was just that the men were needed for more pressing tasks.

The bracelet remained though. Not that Loki cared, he could get it off if he wanted to. It clearly wasn’t made with his shapeshifting in mind, and since he did not require seidr to shapeshift…

Loki celebrated his newfound freedom by sparring against his brother everyday for a **_month_**! His muscles had softened a little since his captivity, but they would build back. And in the meantime, it wasn’t like you needed all that much muscle to fight with knives. They were light, agile, Loki-like.

Byleistr knocked him into the snow, laughing. Spitting out the soft white flakes from his mouth, Loki charged once more at his brother, using his ice majicks to move faster, to allow him to slip and slide and stay out of his brother’s reach. 

Byleistr knocked him right back into the snow, laughing. Grrr, they’d been at this for **_hours_**. Why could Loki never win against his brother- nay, why could Byleistr never be a good big brother and just **_let_ **Loki win!? Would it be so hard to just play dead for one round? That was all that Loki asked for.

“Maybe you ought to try and attack his blindspot, as in the area between his shoulders from behind. The bit he can’t see.” A voice, a familiar on that a he had not heard in roughly a decade, said from above where Loki laid in the snow. He looked up and his heart fluttered. **_Thor_**. 

“I’ll try it, don’t be surprised if it **_fails_** though.” Loki said, his voice coming out in a tone he didn’t quite mean. He’d meant it to sound sarcastic, but to his ears it just sounded **_desperate_**. 

“It won’t. Good luck.”

Loki got up and went up to his brother once more. He charged, Byleistr looked bored, the devil. Loki skidded to behind his brother and Byleistr turned, spear (he had wanted to try a new weapon today) at the ready. Byleistr held the sharp bit, intending to whack Loki with the butt of it, lest he be cut by the head. Loki sped up his running, until he had managed to find himself behind his brother, then he used the ice to launch himself up a bit and kicked Byleistr **_hard_** in the small of his back. Byleistr made a noise of pain, but Loki was not finished. He wrapped his arms around Byleistr’s neck and pulled him to the floor.

He could hear Thor’s sardonic clap in the background. Self-smug bastard.

“Well won, brother.” Byleistr congratulated Loki on his first win in over a decade.

Loki hated the both of them.

.

Loki went back to the training barracks later in the day, when nobody was around. He flung knives at all of the targets, watching them land with deadly accuracy on the heart-area of the dummies. He went to gather his knives and went at it again, and again, **_and again_**.

“Nice work.” Thor called out. Loki spun to face him.

“What are you doing here?” Loki hissed. Did Thor not realise how much trouble Loki could get into if it were discovered that his secret liaison 10 years ago had been with **_Thor_**?

“Just out for some practice. You don’t want to, do you?”

“Thor…” Loki warned.

“What? Just a harmless bit of sparring to improve your fighting skills. Nothing’s wrong with that.” True… and if Loki were honest, Laufey could himself catch Thor with his dick shoved into Loki’s cunt and he’d still not realise what Thor and Loki were up to.

“Alright.” Loki discarded his knives. Thor put down Mjolnir. They faced one another, arms to the ready. Thor took the first lunge, being the more impulsive one out of the two of them. Loki sidestepped. Thor, who had anticipated this, grabbed him around the waist and flung him down. Loki swept his feet out to bring Thor down with him. There were only so many positions that Loki could use to pin Thor down effectively, given the difference in their respective weights and muscle-masses, but trying was better than giving up.

Thor rolled them over, but Loki used the momentum to keep rolling, not wanting to allow Thor to get Loki on his back where he would certainly lose this sparring match. Thor dug his knees in, straddling Loki, and pinning him to the ground. Thor leant forwards, pinning Loki’s hands above his head. Panting from the exhaustion of the brawl, Loki looked up at Thor, who looked down at him. Loki flushed. What was so wrong with him that he managed to find this position arousing? Clearly Thor had felt ‘little-Loki’ liven up a bit, because he looked down at where Loki’s crotch met with Thor’s arse, before looking back up at Loki and leaning down to kiss him, and although frightened, Loki did eventually kiss back.

It was a quick and frenzied thing. Thor adjusted both Loki’s underwear and his own, Loki had lifted his leg over Thor’s back, Thor had spat on his hand and taken both their members in his grip, and then off Thor went, rutting against Loki’s cock.

This was intense, likely fuelled by the fact that it had been a decade since they’d touched each other. In truth, Loki had expected that Thor would have moved on by now, perhaps he had and he was just doing this to get off? Whatever the case, Loki was loving it. Loving writhing in the snow, loving Thor’s hot body over his, loving Thor’s mouth on his own, loving the feel of Thor’s big, **_big_** cock grinding up against his own. Loki bucked into Thor’s hand, thrusting his cock against Thor’s too. He could feel himself growing wet again, even though he knew that Thor would refuse to take him. He wondered if Thor could feel him leaking onto the side of Thor’s abdomen. He ached to move his hands from where Thor was pinning them (and supporting himself) above Loki’s head with his one free hand, longed to drag them all over Thor, but Thor wouldn’t budge.

Loki thrust into Thor’s hand three more times before he came. Thor drew back, stroking himself off to the sight of Loki lying there, cum on his chest, skirt open, cock sticking out limply, cunt that Thor drew his gaze from immediately. Thor grunted, spraying his own cum onto Loki’s chest. He bent down and licked both of their cum off from the younger male’s chest. 

“I missed you.” Loki blurted.

“As I did you.”

Both teens were unaware of a pair of red eyes watching them intently.

.

They made up for their lost time with **_lots_** of midnight affairs, lots of time spent together, mostly in Thor’s rooms. Nobody would look for them there, Loki reasoned, whereas if Laufey were to conduct a surprise check-up on Loki, they would be found out immediately.

Thor held Loki, his chin in the crook of Loki’s neck, arms wrapped around him tightly, but not in a suffocating manner. Loki was tracing patterns into Thor’s arms.

“Thor?” 

“Mhmm.” Thor inhaled Loki’s scent.

“… why do you want to kill me?” Loki asked. It had been a burning question on his mind for centuries now, even more so since they’d begun their carnal acts. 

Instead of turning away, or storming out, or cracking some stupid joke, Thor leant in closer and inhaled the scent of Loki’s hair. “When I was a boy, during the war, your father invaded our castle and killed my brother… Baldr was a baby. I wanted him to know the same pain.”

“Oh.” Loki felt bad, he could tell that despite this happening over a thousand years ago, it still weighed fresh on Thor’s mind. “I’m sorry.”

“No, no… over the years I’ve come to see things a bit differently… I still want my revenge on Laufey, though. I still want to burn this place to the ground…” just not you went unsaid, but was very much heard.

Loki didn’t know why he was so desperate to please Thor, but he piped up “If it is any consolation, I do not believe Laufey to be my father.”

“Oh?”

“I overheard the guards talking a while back. Apparently around the time of my conception, my mother had a rumoured affair with one of his guards, _Hæra_. And it makes sense, because Laufey would have been at war-”

“And would thus have been unable to impregnate Farbauti.” Thor took Loki’s hand, rubbing a thumb over it. “That would make a lot of sense.”

“Aye.” Loki yawned, tired. “I should be leaving.”

“Sleep tight, Loki Hærason.”

.

Loki’s bracelet came off when Loki almost broke his arm off trying to get it off with a hammer and wedge and drove it into his arm accidentally. Thankfully, healing technology on Jotunheimr was advanced enough to repair his arm. Thor had kissed it better. That was the first time Loki had gotten head.

“Why can’t I do it to you?” Loki had asked. “You won’t even let me _touch_ your cock!”

“You are underage.”

“As are you! You said yourself that the Aesir mature slower than the Jotnar!”

“It is different. I am the dominant partner in this relationship, you are the bitch. It would not be right.” The author of this story does not want this story to exceed 60k words, so instead of rambling on about how that means nothing, and how age of consent is more about the psychological damage that having sex too early can cause a person than it is about physical harm, the author is just going to have Loki bite his tongue and end it here. Not.

“That makes it no less right.” Loki leaned up and kissed Thor. “If you will not let me suck on it, at least let me touch it. Please? Do you wish for Gymir’s cock to be the first I ever hold?” Thor growled, no of course he wouldn’t want that.

“Don’t do anything **_you_** don't want to do. My body is for your pleasure.”

“I am more concerned about what **_you_** do not want, I wish for everything you have to give, _Sir Thor_ ,” Loki said the old mocking nickname in such a manner that it made Thor go rock hard in seconds. Thor remembered wanting to beat Loki up over said nickname. Now he just wanted to do unspeakable things to him- which were much, much worse, because regardless of what Loki thought, statutory rape was still rape, even though it wouldn’t technically be statutory rape given that their age difference was small enough to make it legal. Loki was just a kid, he didn’t know any better.

Loki brought his hand down to Thor’s massive member. That thing was **_huge_** , no wonder Thor was able to sleep with proper-sized Frost Bitches and satisfy them! It had to be at **_least_** nine inches hard, and was as thick as a cucumber easily! It had a slight curve to it too… it looked like a big plantain, almost, maybe just a **_little_** bit thicker.

Loki touched it experimentally with his hand. It jerked a little, on its own. He ripped his hand back. That scary. He looked to Thor who seemed like he was trying to hide a laugh. Smug bastard. Loki took a hold of Thor’s dick once more and begun to stroke it, like Thor had done to him a hundred times over. Loki leaned up to give Thor a kiss on the lips, before returning his focus to Thor’s big cock. Loki glanced at Thor for permission, before moving his face down and licking over Thor’s head. It seemed that that had not been what Thor had thought that he was going to do, because Thor yanked his head back by his hair. “No, Loki.”

“Why not?”

“ ** _You are underage_**!” Thunder boomed in the distance. Loki turned back to Thor, unafraid.

“As are you- we’ve been over this, dammit! Nothing being done here is illegal, **_Thor_**!” Loki stood up. “If you don't want me like this then **_fine_**! You’re entitled to your wants and whims! But at least be **_open_** about it!” Thor caught Loki’s hand.

“I **_do_** want you, and you know it!” Thor growled, possessively dragging Loki back onto the bed and crowding him in above Thor. “But Loki, you are **_too young_**! Please. The day you come of age, I shall **_gladly_** break your virginity-”

“I shall be **_wed_** by then, Thor!” Translation: I shall be gone by then, Thor! I shall be gone without you- I do doubt that I shall see you again in this lifetime. “If you continue to stall, then you will **_not_** be my first- you may never even fuck me! I know not of Laufey’s plans for me post-marriage, though I should think that they are non-existent, because of Gymir’s cock doesn't kill me, then his brood certainly shall."

"I will not let that happen.”

“How, Thor?” Loki asked, leaning his head back and looking up at the man.

“What if we slept together the night before your wedding? At midnight?” It was a sweet thought, Loki let Thor own it.

“Father would keep you as my guard, you’d sneak in once everyone was asleep…”

“There’d be candles all around us. I’d kiss you all over and open you up on my tongue. You’d squirm as you rode my fingers… I’d put my cock in, rock slowly. It would be your first time, so you might bleed a little, be warned. I’d keep it gentle, don’t worry, so you wouldn’t get hurt.”

Loki huffed a laugh. “For all the waiting I’ve been doing, I deserve to be pinned down with my arse in the air as an army of Thor’s takes me over and over again- I’ve got the seidr to do it too!”

“ _Loki_!”

“I’m sorry, am I interrupting your sweet musings?”

“You are so profane!”

“Don’t be a prude, Thor!”

“I’ve had sex over a thousand times in my career!”

“And yet still are rendered shy by a few choice words, my blushing bride.” Loki snickered. “Or should I say **_Thrym's_** blushing bride.”

“We agreed never to speak about this.”

“Of course- you know, by Jotunn Law, you are Kari’s property. Second wives are like property on Jotunheimr- that makes you Jarnsaxa’s brother-in-law!”

“ ** _And_** Queen of Thrymheimr, which is a higher title than you shall ever hold.” Thor flicked Loki’s ear, playfully, not thinking too hard about how he was technically now related to Jarnsaxa ~~, nor that that was not how he wished to be related through marriage to Jarnsaxa.~~

“We should be grateful, I think, that Kari has not come by to claim an heir of you.”

“As far as he is concerned, **_you_** are his property, not I.” Not I… _Not I…_ wait, so if Loki was technically married- or _thought to be_ technically married to Kari- then surely Laufey could not **_re-_** marry him! “Laufey surely cannot marry you off to Gymir if everyone is under the impression that you belong to Kari.”

Loki shook his head. “I was a minor by Jotunheimr’s general laws, the marriage was nullified in exchange for me not claiming my marital inheritance of half of Thrym’s lands. But they did not know that it was not **_I_** who had signed that document, so technically…”

“Technically nothing has been nullified, because not only was **_I_** of age, but nobody has brokered a severance on my behalf… well, as long as nobody knows.”

“Yes, as long as nobody knows.”

Thor stroked Loki’s forehead. “In a different lifetime, we would not need to do all of this sneaking around.”

Loki grasped the hand stroking his forehead. “Oh Thor, I fear that we would be doomed to this in all lifetimes…”

.

As Jarnsaxa got closer to his child-bearing age, Laufey got all the more obnoxious in trying to push Thor and him together. 

Loki sipped down some wine, bitterly, secure in the knowledge that were he to vanish randomly during the feast, Laufey would send someone after him, so he was safe as far as any potential rapes went. Look at his cousin throwing himself all over Thor, as though Thor was even **_remotely_** interested in whatever Jarnsaxa _thought_ he had to offer him. Look at the gaggle swooning, like fangirls, at the thought of their Head Bitch and their Head Hunt becoming a power couple. Fucking amateurs. 

Thor was too good for Jarnsaxa anyways. Jarnsaxa was superficial, Thor was only superficial on the surface, he wore it like a mask to protect himself. Jarnsaxa was all ditzy and dreamy, Thor was a visionary. Jarnsaxa had a vicious streak a mile wide, Thor was kind and gentle and patient. They’d never work.

And just like that, Loki knew that he’d gone in too deep. What matter was it to him who Thor should end up with, given that within a year or two Loki would be making his escape? What matter was it to him? He shook his head in anger and went off to find someone to talk to. By chance it was Gymir.

“Loki! Lovely as ever!” Gymir drank in the sight of Loki’s skirt. It wasn’t his typical shendyt, no, this one was a new skirt his tailor had made for him, specially designed, decorated with a bunchy, translucent material with glitter and sparkles, made to look like a glazed, star-studded night sky. Apparently being less than a decade away from his maturity meant that his tailor thought it fitting that Loki adopt a more mature, refined look. It was his job as the second-highest ranking Frost Bitch in the land to set an example for the other Frost Bitches, of course.

“Thank you, Gymir. You haven’t been to the last two feasts!”

“Ah, yes. We’ve been having some land problems. Twisters, cyclones, barren land, you name it. I’ve been busy trying to sort it out.”

“That is a shame. You know, Sir Thor is a fertility god. If you ask my father, I’m sure that he’d lend him to you. He’s vain old man that would jump at the chance to prove his in-law’s excellence.”

Gymir chuckled. “I’ve always admired the way that you think, Laufeyson. You remind me a bit of my grandson, Midi.” Why, because he’s 720 years older than me? “He’s clever too. You should **_see_** the Frost Bitch he’s dating though- that man’s like 14000 years older than him!” Loki did not comment on the irony.

“Love is love, I suppose.” Loki shrugged. “And what of your other grandson, Íma? I hear he recently got engaged.”

Gymir’s face darkened. “To a wilderman. We do not speak of it.”

“Oh, that is so horrible. There is still time to annul it, I’m sure!”

Gymir shook his head, sadly. “They’ve gone and eloped. And we’d had such high hopes that he’d marry the Duke of Thorneheim!”

“There, there. Maybe one day he will wake up, unhappy, and return home to you.”

“One can only hope. His father, Eggthér can’t eat or sleep anymore. It was just such a horrible shock to the system.”

“Is he with Dúfa?”

“Nay, Dúfa is in Thrymheim, serving by Kari. He has no time to spare on Eggthér.”

“Dúfa and Kari are quite close.”

“Aye. Let us hope that my eldest is not a Frost Bitch, else I shall have none to pass on my fortunes and land to upon my death.”

Laufey intended on making suer that Dúfa and Kari wound up together, Loki realised then. Huh… Well played, father. Well played.

“Ah- Master Gymir! There is an urgent message for you from a Count Dumbr.” A servant bowed.

Gymir seemed to recognise the name. “I’m coming.” He cursed, quickly following the servant out of the room. Loki took a breath and wandered around a bit, going outside for some fresh air.

“ ** _Loki!?_** ” A voice boomed behind him. A somewhat familiar one. Loki turned in dread to face his caller.

“Horus.” Loki greeted back, bowing slightly, as polite as always. “My, it has been a while!”

“It certainly has! And look at how you’ve **_grown_**! Wow, you’re even more beautiful than the last time I saw you!” The man stared at Loki in an invasive manner that Loki didn’t quite like. It felt as though he were undressing Loki with his eyes. And Loki didn’t necessarily feel all that safe around him. “It’s such a shame that you’re marrying Gymir.”

“Aye.”

“So, **_so_** beautiful…” Horus bent down and gave Loki a kiss, Loki scrambled to get away, but Horus held him down. Loki used his ice magic to slap Horus away, Horus stood up. “Hey, hey. Chill, man. It was only a kiss.”

“Get away from me.”

“Fine, creep!”

“Not so fast!” Captain Argis’s voice rang through the garden. “Horus Eldrson, you are under arrest for adultery, and for sexually abusing a minor. Boys, take him away!” What? Loki watched Hlora fight as he was dragged away. “There, there, Loki. Your father told me everything, you are safe now, child.” Captain Argis patted him on the shoulder.

“Captain Argis, what is this?”

“We know that he is the man who was sexually using you a decade ago. Do not fear, child.”

“Sir, Horus wasn’t even in Utgard a decade ago.” Loki reminded him. “He’s a swine, but he did not leave those bite marks on my neck.” Captain Argis paused. “Alright then, I shall speak to Laufey about this. But he is likely to still face charges for forcing that kiss upon you.”

“That is fair.” And in that moment Loki felt a surge of deadly hate towards his cousin, because it was _he_ who longed to be sheltered from the trauma of what had just almost happened by Thor's big, strong arms.

He marched inside, the winds picking up.

.

“Loki! I heard you were assaulted!” Thor rushed into Loki’s room that night.

“It wasn’t an assault, Thor. Now leave, I’m tired.”

Thor frowned, watching Loki flip through the pages of some book in his armchair. “I’ve just come to check that you’re alright.”

“Which I am- it’s past **_midnight_**.”

“And you’re not asleep.” Thor stated. Thor walked over to Loki. “Loki, what’s wrong, tell me?” He took the book out of Loki’s hands and found a knife lodged in his hands. He hissed and dropped the book with an ‘ow’, He glared at Loki. “What’s got you in a mood?”

“Nothing, you’re just annoying me.” Loki managed to keep from snapping. But only just.

“Loki, come on.” Thor touched the side of Loki’s face, gently. Loki turned away from it. 

“No, Thor. Not tonight. Find somebody else to do it.”

That’s when it hit Thor. “You’re not… you’re not **_jealous_** are you? Jealous of Jarnsaxa?” Jealous!? And what would Loki have to be jealous of? The fact that Thor had _abandoned_ him at the party, had been so busy flirting with fucking Jarnsaxa of all people that he wasn't there to protect him when Horus had kissed him!? Why should he be upset, really? Sure, that kiss could have led _anywhere_ , but Loki was a skilled seidrmadr who could take care of himself. So no, he wasn't jealous about his slut of a cousin running his hands all over Thor. He wasn't jealous that Thor could be openly affectionate with Jarnsaxa in public. No, he was just tired and Thor was just bothering him.

“Do not be **_absurd_** , Thor. I am merely not in the mood for any activities tonight. I suggest you find one of your gaggle if you’re that horny- and yes, I do suppose that that would include Jarnsaxa.”

“Oh my goodness.” Thor huffed, forgetting his injured hand. “You **_are_** jealous.”

“Am not.”

“Are so.”

“Me being jealous would imply that I have something to be jealous of. It would imply that there’s something between us that I don’t want you to have with Jarnsaxa- except that that’s not true, Thor. There’s **_nothing_** between us. You and I both know that.” Thor shook his head, angry at the words he was hearing Loki say. “All we do is makeout and touch each other. By all means go ahead and do that with somebody else, Thor. I’ll have a husband to do it with soon enough, why shouldn’t you?”

“Loki, stop-”

“Stop what, Thor? This barrage of truth getting too much for you? You _have_ softened up quite a lot these past few years.” Loki got up off his chair and slithered forwards. “I remember what you used to be: a manly man; Jotunheimr’s most eligible bachelor. Now look at you, turned into a bleeding mess on my floor.”

“Loki, **_enough_**.” Thor warned, thunder crashing ominously in the distance, not that it was enough to scare Loki though. Oh no, he had just started this tirade, and he was nowhere near stopping it.

“Such a pity, really. Oh well, I’m sure you’ll toughen right back up once my father’s had you murder your entire family fo his viewing pleasure.”

“Loki-”

“Well **_I’m_** sorry for being open and honest with you, Thor, but that’s kind of what I do. What do **_you_** do, Mr. Dark and Mysterious? You just dance around all of your problems, while acting like you’re better than all the rest of us.” Loki grabbed Thor’s arm. “But I’m betting that you’re just as depraved, that you’re just as barbaric.” And forced him to relive a flashback.

_Thor was 1000, in his cell on Jotunheimr. He was being taught how to kill._

_“Just slit his throat.” Rindr pointed at the old man, bound and broken on the floor. The man had stolen a load of bread from a merchant, a_ **_foreign_ ** _merchant, so he was in big trouble._

_“No, no, please. My son, he is a child, he needs someone to feed him.” And honestly, Thor thought that the man made a relatively good point._

_“You should have thought about that earlier, scum.” Rindr spat on the man._

_“I can’t do it.” Thor wanted to vomit._

_“Fifty lashes for the man!” Rindr ordered another guard. The man screamed in pain as a large whip was brought out and flung repeatedly across his back. Thor shook at the sounds and sight of the old man being broken down. “Now, let’s try that one again, Thor. Come here- yes. Just kneel down and move his head back a bit- yes, that’s a good boy. Right, now bring the blade across his neck- deeper,_ **deeper** _, no, Thor! You’re just going to spurt blood everywh- do it_ **_faster_ ** _!” Rindr grunted in disgust at the blood-soaked, trembling boy before him. “Fucking pathetic.” Rind knelt down, grabbed Thor’s knife-weilding hand, and quickly slit the old Jotunn’s throat._

_“Good. There, now, done. Eat your lunch, then we are going to see how long it takes you to cook someone with your lightning, boy. You’ll love the other guy- he was arrested for public indecency! Not scandalous to make it to the ring, I’m afraid, but you can have your fun with him here.”_

Loki blinked, drawing back. Thor’s slap across Loki’s face was swift, hard, and effective in knocking Loki to the floor. 

“How dare you!?” Thor exploded, thunder ringing so close it shook the windows of Loki’s rooms.

“Thor, I’m so-”

“No! Save your apologies! I keep **_trying_** to be nice and cordial with you, but you’re **_twisted_** , Loki! Twisted into a fucking knot! You’re like that snake that eats itself- you’re never going to change! I don’t even know why I bother trying! Fuck you! **_Fuck you!_** ” Lightning bounced off of Thor’s hands, some almost hitting Loki, but Thor didn’t care. Thor left the room in an angry march.

Loki stared around the room’s charred and broken remains. What had he done? He started to weep.

.

Thor didn’t meet his eyes at breakfast the next morning, nor at dinner, nor the day after that. It seemed that Loki had just gone too damned far this time.

Which- fine, he didn’t need Thor. Wasn’t he supposed to be trying to distance himself from the man anyways?

Horus got twenty lashings, Byleistr and Helblindi had both profusely apologised for ever introducing the pair. Loki had laughed it off and told them not to worry, that he’d never been in any danger, that Horus was a **_creep_** , not a monster.

Thor still wouldn’t look at him. Or talk to him. Or acknowledge him in any other way. Even when months had passed.

Meanwhile, Laufey had been acting weird since Horus had tried to forcibly kiss him- well, just **_forcibly kiss him,_** he supposed, since the man had achieved his goal. Loki worried that his father would unexpectedly drop a new round of guards on him.

The war had been planned. A fake attack from Fire Giants in the north would start Jotunheimr’s march to Muspelheim. The incident was planned for two months from the date. Loki would be spending the time leading up to his maturity at Gymir’s castle.

Which was why Loki knew that should he wish to make an escape, now would be the best time to do it. The sooner the better, he supposed.

Except that the more he thought about it, the more futile it seemed. Were Loki to escape, then Laufey would surely seek to punish him for it. And were Laufey to take over the Nine, which he would certainly do with the help of Thor, then there would be no plane of existence which was safe for Loki to inhabit. He really was trapped here.

Except… (the answer came to him a month before the planned ‘Fire Giant infiltration’) if Jotunheimr **_didn’t_** conquer the Nine. Except if Loki could **_ensure_** they did not conquer the Nine… and get himself some leverage in the process too. What if he stole the Casket of Ancient Winters? What then? Laufey would be unable to march if foreign climates kept holding him back, and the only way to rectify that would be with said Casket. It was a **_genius_** move.

And so it was, on a cold December morning, with all of his books and money packed up in a space pocket, floating around somewhere, that Loki stole away into Laufey’s Weapons Vault.

The room was massive. In it was an Infinity Gauntlet; Zeus’s Sword; An Invisibility Cloak; Cursed Pearls- you name it! And in the centre of it all stood the Casket of Ancient Winters, in all of its wintry glory. It breathed ice out into the air around it. Loki inhaled the fresh, rich, pepperminty smell. He would take it and flee to Midgard, he decided. Nobody there would be obligated to turn him in.

“Well, well. If it isn’t my runt of a son.” Laufey’s voice called out through the room. Loki jerked, his shoulders going up. Oh no, this was it. “Trying to make away with our major weapon, huh? Always so fucking pathetic, Loki.” Laufey grabbed Loki and flung him so that he landed face-first on the steps to the Casket. He struggled to stand, his head spinning, but by the time he was up, Laufey had already grabbed him by the neck.

“‘m not your… ‘m not your son.” Loki spat blood at Laufey.

“What is that- I didn’t quite catch that?” Laufey spat all over Loki’s face mockingly.

“‘m not- ‘m **_Hærason!_** ” Laufey gave him an odd look then.

“No. Regretfully I’ve got the stretch marks to prove that you are mine- though I wish you **_were_** _Hærason_. I thought I could create the perfect heir, if only he was born of the King of Jotunheimr, I thought that the connection to the throne might be deeper… but then I had **_you_**.” Laufey spat the word out with contempt. “And I understood then why Kings are not meant to bear life. Why we are only fit to **_take_** it.” Loki felt his soul break. There was no escape from this... Laufey WAS his father. All the comfort he'd known the past eight years, where he had hoped time and time again for Hæra to be his father, and it was all for nought. Laufey dragged Loki over to the casket by his hair, and stuck Loki’s head over it, positioning his neck on the crook of it. Whispy blue-white tendrils of ice-smoke curled upwards from the casket as it shimmered. Loki's red blood which fell from his head (nose) in a steady stream trailed down into it, likely the source of the smoke. It was hypnotic, almost, the way the Casket drank it in, like a living being with it's own free-will, it's own mouth to feed. This was it. This was how his life would end. Loki had always thought that he would be a lot more prepared for it, but suddenly he felt like jumping up and screaming in fright and running away all at once. He jerked, but Laufey held him still. Loki could feel the casket starting to freeze **_him_** over. “At least in death you can finally be good for SOMETHING! **THOR**!”

What? Loki’s eyes flickered as he panted for breath. **_Thor_**! Thor was right there, standing near where Laufey had entered from. He had likely been with Laufey the whole time. For the first time in nearly a year, Thor looked at him. But where Loki might hope to find compassion, he was met with pure apathy. “Thor, my Executioner. This **_runt_** stands here, guilty of **_High Treason_**. I command you to kill him.” Thor nodded, reluctantly, still staring at Loki, staring at Loki probably knowing this was the last time that the two of them would catch each other alive. “Come on now, hurry up. There are plenty other Frost Bitches to fuck!” At Loki and Thor’s mutual shocked expressions, Laufey laughed out. “Oh come now, you two couldn’t have honestly thought that I didn’t know? I caught you two in the training grounds.” His voice lowered, and now he spoke directly to Thor. “Come, son. Do this, show me your loyalty and all shall be forgiven. I shall even spare your family once we take over the Nine together. All you have to do is kill Loki.” And just like that, Loki knew that his fate was sealed. Even when they’d been on good terms, Thor would never have chosen Loki over his family. “Come, boy. You know what happens if you disobey me? You will have nowhere to run, your **_family_** will have nowhere to run. Asgard shall burn to ruins- all those lives on your shoulders. Come now, **_Thor_**.”

Loki closed his eyes, bracing himself. He’d felt Mjolnir before, but never had he had her thrown at him. He imagined that it would hurt. A lot. Oh well, he’d always known he’d be sacrificed by Loki in **_some_** way, whether by blood or by marriage, he’d just thought he’d be smart enough to pick his own fate instead. Clearly he’d been wrong. 

Mjolnir flew. Loki felt heavy then, and fell to the ground. This must be what death feels like, then. He felt his stomach contents move up, and he laid sprawled, his bones all aching horribly, like they were on fire. Hands grabbed him and hoisted him up. Loki frowned and opened his eyes, and there was Thor standing in front of Loki. Loki blinked and looked down, Laufey laid dead by his feet, that must have been the weight that had pulled him down. 

“Thor, what have you done?” Loki asked, horrified. In truth, he’d long believed that Laufey would outlive him, seeing the man like this was beyond surreal. 

Thor shrugged, looking helpless for the first time since Loki had known him. “I do not know.” How was Thor to explain the rush of fire that had washed over him at the sight of Loki injured and in need of a saviour? How was he supposed to explain how he had been well and truly fearful, for the first time in over a thousand years, in that very moment. That that fear had stemmed directly from the thought of losing Loki? How he had thought to his mother’s letter, the line _‘I’ve met your friend, Loki. Nice little fellow, very handy with glamours and healing spells ;) Glad to see you have someone close to you over there <3’ _and how she had cryptically, but bluntly, expressed her support for their relationship, because even his **_mother_** who had not seen him in over a thousand years knew that Loki was the one… How could **_anybody_** put all of those emotions into a string of words better executed than ‘I do not know’?

“Thor, you have sealed your peoples’ fate.” Loki said, wide-eyed and still in shock.

“I know.” Thor nodded, staring at Laufey’s body. “This is a mess.”

“Indeed.” Already a scheme was twisting itself into Loki’s mind, a method on how to handle this. “If we remain, we shall be sent to our deaths.”

“Aye.”

“Run away with me, Thor.” Loki took Thor hand. “We can go to Midgard, we’ll be safe there.”

“What about my people, Loki? I cannot just leave them to die.”

“We’ll take the Casket. We’ll negotiate with Helblindi.” Loki leaned up and gave Thor a kiss, but Thor flinched and turned away. It broke Loki’s heart just a little, but he figured he deserved that. He had a lot of making up to do for trespassing into Thor’s memories without his permission… but he knew that it could be done, and in the same breath knew that this time he and Thor could be together, because Helblindi would never marry Loki off to his death, aka Gymir, even if it meant arms and men. 

“Aye?”

“We’ll be back by the decade’s end.” Loki brushed Thor’s hair off of his face. “Worry not.”

Thor nodded his acceptance, grabbing the Casket. “We’ve a long road ahead of us, then.” He bent down to give Loki a soft, reassuring kiss on the forehead. For a second a glimmer of hope sparked up in Loki, a hope that mayhaps the worst of what they had was somewhat forgiven. “Let us make it count.” Only one way to find out.

**_End_**!

**Author's Note:**

> Lmao, so I started this fic on Nov 5, and wrote the first five thousand words that night. I thought I was going to finish it that night, because it wasn't supposed to be this long, and also because the arc was quite a bit different (I'd estimated about 20k words) but then I joined twitter for reasons alluded to in the notes in the beginning, and my writing on this story SLOWED!
> 
> All in all, it went a bit differently than I'd intended, some scenes that I'd liked were rendered unusable with the way that the story went, Loki and Thor were not supposed to have that deep of a relationship prior to the end, etc. but that's just how fics are, sometimes, I guess 🤷🏻♀️ Besides, I'll probably do a collection of minifics in parallel with this story, because YES I thought of the aftermath of this story, but I wanted the story to be a one-shot, but I guess random minifics to add context to events wouldn't hurt all too much... I say as you curse me for writing 50k words as a single chapter. ;) 
> 
> Anywho, it's 1:30 AM here, so Imma go to bed! G'night, guys!
> 
> (And if there is a particular fic you guys want updated: mention it! I'm bored af atm, I'll legit do whatever).


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